Case Study – CITB
Background
The Construction Industry Training Board’s purpose is to support the construction industry to have a skilled, competent and inclusive workforce, now and in the future. To identify opportunities for supporting future industry needs, it wished to explore the key issues and trends which the construction sector faces in the UK and to address the question:
“What are the potential operating environments for the UK construction sector to 2030 and beyond and the resulting key issues for skills and training?
This work built on SAMI’s work for CITB’s predecessor, Construction Skills and other previous SAMI work in this field.
Specific objectives for the project included examining the key issues and trends shaping future jobs and skills in the UK construction sector in the medium (up to 2030) and long term (up to 2050) to assess their potential implications for industry employment, skills and training requirement; and To consider opportunities for how CITB may best support future industry needs and implications for the Training Levy (the way in which CITB is funded) and other policies.
SAMI’s Role
SAMI began with a horizon scanning phase covering three major areas of housing, commercial and public building, and infrastructure. In each of these areas we identified developments within the five STEEP categories – social, technological, economic, environmental and political. We then carried out a series of interviews with industry experts.
This research was followed by three scenario workshops in which we identified key axes of uncertainty and produced descriptions of four distinct scenarios. These were used to examine potential implications for the construction sector and CITB itself. Issues around the Training Levy were also surfaced.
Finally in a wind-tunnelling and back-casting exercise, SAMI generated recommendations for CITB’s strategic role and ongoing capabilities.
Outcomes
The report helped shape CITB’s strategy and was shared internally and with key stakeholders.
The work has been important in developing CITB’s business plan and strategic thinking – more details about the business plan are available here Business Plan (What We Do) – CITB.
Marcus Bennett, CITB Head of Analysis & Forecasting commented: “SAMI’s approach opened up new perspectives of the future and implications for CITB that have been very helpful in shaping our future direction” and thanked the SAMI team for providing the structure, process and encouragement that allowed the team and participants to be creative.