Construction industry bodies, trade unions, and politicians from four different parties are pushing the same message to the Scottish Government: don’t break what’s working.
Scotland’s upcoming Tertiary Education and Training Bill aims to modernize skills training, but industry leaders warn it risks dismantling an apprenticeship system that has delivered results for decades.
Scotland needs an estimated 79,100 additional construction workers by 2029 to meet infrastructure demands. The country has £18 billion worth of construction projects lined up through 2035. Climate goals depend on these workers being properly trained.
If the apprenticeship pipeline breaks during this transition, you can’t just fix it later. Training takes years to produce results.
The System You Don’t See
Over a third of all Modern Apprentices in training are in construction and related occupations—33.7% of the total. The sector achieves a 78.4% completion rate for programs that typically last three to four years.
The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) provides 78% of the £91 million annual funding needed for construction apprenticeships—money collected from construction firms and reinvested directly into training their future workforce.
What Managing Agents Actually Do
The proposed legislation threatens to sideline or eliminate managing agents—organizations that coordinate apprenticeship delivery between employers, training providers, and apprentices.
Managing agents monitor apprentice progress, provide pastoral support, ensure safeguarding compliance, and maintain quality standards across hundreds of training sites. They’re the connective tissue that keeps a complex system functioning.
When an apprentice struggles, managing agents intervene. When an employer fails to provide adequate training, managing agents step in. When safety standards slip, managing agents catch it.
The Tripartite Model Under Pressure
Scotland’s apprenticeship system operates on a tripartite model: employers, trade unions, and industry bodies all have a voice in how training works.
This balance matters because the work is safety-critical. A poorly trained electrician creates fire hazards. A poorly trained scaffolder risks lives.
The Construction Industry Collective Voice (CICV) has united major trade and professional bodies to advocate for protecting this model. MSPs from the SNP, Conservatives, Labour, and Liberal Democrats have previously backed parliamentary motions recognizing CICV’s collaborative approach—a rare instance of cross-party agreement.
The Timing Problem
Skills shortages in Scottish construction are worsening.
60% of survey respondents noted a shortage of quantity surveyors, up from 50% previously. 40% reported a shortage of bricklayers, up from 37%. These gaps are widening while demand accelerates.
The Scottish Government has committed £4.9 billion to build 36,000 affordable homes. Infrastructure projects worth billions are in the pipeline. Climate retrofitting will require thousands of skilled workers who don’t exist yet.
Industry experts warn: “We simply don’t have the domestic workforce that is needed to service near-term demand levels, and investment in training and apprenticeships takes years to come to fruition.”
Disrupting working systems during a workforce crisis is dangerous. The lag time between breaking and fixing could span years—years when critical projects stall or quality standards erode.
What Advocacy Looks Like in Practice
The CICV isn’t asking for new benefits or expanded programs. They’re framing their demands as loss prevention.
It’s easier to defend something that works than to sell something new. The industry can point to completion rates, safety records, and decades of proven results.
They’re emphasizing safety-critical competence. Framing apprenticeship quality as a public safety issue elevates the conversation beyond economic development and makes it harder for policymakers to dismiss concerns as industry protectionism.
Monica Lennon MSP has been active in supporting the campaign, lending political credibility to industry concerns. Her involvement signals genuine policy substance beyond trade bodies protecting their turf.
The Broader Pattern
Public policy transitions often show a gap between intention and execution.
The Tertiary Education and Training Bill aims to modernize and streamline skills training. Those are reasonable goals. But modernization often means centralization, and centralization can inadvertently destroy local knowledge and established relationships.
Government-managed transitions between regulatory regimes create risk. Reforms produce unintended consequences when policymakers don’t understand the systems they’re changing.
The construction industry’s concerns are based on watching other sectors struggle through similar transitions and lose institutional knowledge during reorganizations.
What to Watch
The Stage 3 Debate on the Tertiary Education and Training Bill will determine whether industry concerns get addressed through amendments.
If managing agents and industry bodies retain meaningful roles in apprenticeship governance, the transition will work. If they get sidelined in favor of centralized government control, expect problems within two to three years.
The impact will show in completion rates first, then safety incidents, then project delays as skilled workers become harder to find.
The construction industry is resisting change because they understand the consequences of breaking a system that works.
The Climate Connection
Scotland’s climate commitments depend entirely on having enough skilled construction workers.
Retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency requires trained tradespeople. Installing heat pumps requires qualified technicians. Building renewable energy infrastructure requires experienced construction teams.
If the apprenticeship pipeline weakens during this transition, climate goals become aspirational rather than achievable. Training skilled workers takes time.
Weaken the skills pipeline, and you undermine environmental policy.
What Happens Next
The construction industry has made its case. Politicians have heard the concerns. The question is whether those concerns translate into legislative amendments that preserve what works while still allowing modernization.
This is a test case for how well the government can manage complex system transitions. The outcome will affect construction apprenticeships and how other industries view their relationship with skills policy.
If the Scottish Government gets this right, modernization doesn’t require destroying existing infrastructure. If they get it wrong, it’s a cautionary tale about the cost of overlooking institutional knowledge.
The consequences will play out over the years. By the time the results are clear, the decisions will be made. The industry is pushing now because once the bill passes, the opportunity to protect these systems disappears.