CITB allocated £430,000 to fix timber construction’s skills crisis. The real question is whether training can outpace retirement.
I’m looking at the numbers behind this funding announcement, and they reveal a sector racing against time. The Construction Industry Training Board committed two years and nearly half a million pounds to develop specialized timber construction training. Donaldson Offsite leads a consortium with Edinburgh Napier University, NMITE, BE-ST, the Structural Timber Association, and Timber Development UK.
The plan includes accredited courses, career pathways, and modern methods of construction using structural timber. But here’s where the math gets uncomfortable.
The UK needs 251,500 additional construction workers by 2028. That’s 50,300 new workers every year for the next four years. Meanwhile, the workforce is aging out faster than training programs can replace them. By 2035, over one-third of construction workers will retire, and currently 35% are over 50 while only 20% are under 30.
The math doesn’t favor optimism.
Timber construction represents one of the fastest-growing construction sectors, driven by carbon reduction demands. Using timber can reduce embodied emissions by 20% to 60% in a single building. The environmental case is clear. The workforce case is murkier.
Six organizations spanning education, industry bodies, and commercial entities coordinate around a single training initiative. The sector recognizes the scale of the problem. Public funding catalyzing cross-sector collaboration means this goes beyond isolated skills gaps.
I see the program targeting new entrants and existing professionals, focusing on management and on-site delivery of offsite manufactured timber systems. It aligns with the government-industry Timber in Construction Roadmap launched this year. Scalability depends on incorporating training into the national education system, not running standalone courses.
I’m questioning whether two years is enough to develop, accredit, and scale training programs that address a demographic shift decades in the making. The initiative tackles timber-specific skills for modern construction methods within a larger workforce crisis that no single funding allocation can solve.
The real test is execution speed and adoption rates. Can the consortium design courses, gain accreditation, train instructors, and produce qualified workers before the retirement wave accelerates? Can those workers enter the sector faster than experienced professionals exit?
Timber construction sits at the intersection of housing demand, carbon reduction goals, and modern manufacturing methods. Training workers in this area could unlock capacity across multiple government priorities. But funding training programs and filling the skills gap operate on different timelines. Even well-designed initiatives face structural headwinds that money alone can’t overcome.
I’ll be watching whether this consortium can move fast enough to make a dent before demographics make the decision for them. The £430,000 buys two years of development time. The question is whether the sector has two years to spare.