Construction Scotland Innovation Centre (CSIC) and the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) have formed a new partnership to help address the shortage of innovation skills in the construction industry.

CITB is the industry training board for the construction sector. It is dedicated to ensuring the construction workforce has the right skills for now and the future. Its remit includes supporting the skills development of the construction workforce in order to be more productive and respond to ever-changing industry needs.

Industry-led and demand-driven, CSIC sits at the heart of the Scottish construction innovation ecosystem, operating as a catalyst and fostering collaborative partnerships around common issues to deliver transformational change across the sector.

The partnership will create a strategic relationship to help identify and deliver the future skills and training the construction industry needs to help it innovate more, resulting in improved productivity across the sector.

The partnership will incentivise and support innovation by providing access and training provision for industry, further education providers and public sector partners within the Innovation Factory, CSIC's 35,000 sq ft hub that provides an open access, low cost, safe environment for partners to access £2 million of state-of-the-art equipment.

-- Advertisement --

The partnership will also result in:

• The production of a joint research programme, which will stimulate future skills and training solutions where demand and need are proven

• An increase in training provision across Scotland by providing industry and construction stakeholders with access to innovative products and workforce upskilling

• Marketing and tracking of the use of offsite construction across Scotland, and developing courses and funding to incentivise skills and training

• Benchmarking and marketing productivity projects, to demonstrate how innovative processes can reduce costs, timescales and waste

• Developing courses, modules and frameworks which are relevant to the industry, and where applicable are incentivised by CITB grant support.

Rohan Bush, Head of Public Partnerships & Future Workforce, at CSIC said: "At CSIC we work collaboratively with the industry to develop the future skills our sector needs. Our objective is to support the construction workforce to become more innovative, dynamic and globally competitive.

"Similarly, CITB has identified the need to develop future skills and innovation within the workforce as part of its reform programme. Working together to realise these mutual aims makes perfect sense, and I look forward to building on previous collaborations with CITB through this new strategic partnership."

Sarah Beale, Chief Executive at CITB, also said: "Our new partnership with CSIC will enable us to work together to help the Scottish construction industry develop the future skills it needs to boost productivity, attract new entrants, and meet the challenges of a changing economy.

"Innovation is at the heart of this partnership and we look forward to finding new ways to help the industry in Scotland take full advantage of the training and technology that can transform the way we work."