Construction Skills Roundtable brings West Yorkshire partners together to tackle workforce challenges

The West Yorkshire Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) brought together employers, training providers, sector bodies and regional partners today [Thursday 29th October 2026] for a Construction Skills Roundtable focused on one of the region’s most pressing challenges: ensuring West Yorkshire has the skilled workforce needed to deliver future housing, infrastructure, transport and Net Zero ambitions.

The roundtable provided an opportunity to examine current and future workforce demand, identify where skills shortages are most acute and, importantly, discuss how the skills system can respond more effectively to the needs of employers.

Evidence presented at the event reinforced the scale of the challenge. Construction remains vital to housing growth, infrastructure delivery, Net Zero and retrofit, while shortages continue across trades, professional and technical occupations, and supervisory and management roles.

Evidence also highlighted projected demand for 3,560 additional workers per year across Yorkshire and the Humber, alongside particular demand for construction project managers, civil engineers, surveyors and carpenters and joiners.

Employers need clearer routes to skills support

A strong message from the discussion was that skills shortages cannot be addressed simply by increasing training provision.

Participants highlighted an ageing workforce, shortages in key occupations and the need to attract and retain the next generation of construction workers. Employers, particularly SMEs, also need a much clearer understanding of where to go for skills support, available funding and grants, and how to keep up to date as funding, qualifications and industry requirements change.

This reflects the wider employer intelligence presented at the event, which identified recruitment difficulties, shortages of experienced and qualified workers, apprentice retention, the cost of employing apprentices, inconsistent training provision and confusion around funding and grant eligibility as recurring challenges.

There is also a potential break in the talent pipeline. While there are cohorts of potential new entrants coming through FE colleges, DWP programmes and Skills Bootcamps, constrained employer confidence and a lack of vacancies can prevent those learners progressing into employment.

Significant new investment in construction skills

The discussion was particularly timely following yesterday’s Budget announcement of £15 million to support the opening of Leeds College of Building’s new Construction Technical Excellence College (CTEC) building. The College said the investment will enable its campus to accommodate more than 2,000 additional learners and help it continue responding to construction sector skills needs.

The CTEC for Yorkshire and the Humber and is part of the Government’s wider approach to tackling construction skills shortages. The programme is intended to strengthen collaboration between colleges, training providers and employers and increase training in high-demand trades.

This complements wider investment already being made in West Yorkshire. The Construction Skills Package presented during the roundtable includes 1,560 additional training places over three years, £6.3 million capital investment in FE construction teaching space, 488 days of industry-led teaching and 1,139 industry placements in year one.

Turning evidence into action

The roundtable reinforced the importance of employers, providers and regional partners working together so that investment translates into a stronger workforce pipeline.

The West Yorkshire LSIP identifies addressing critical technical and specialist shortages, strengthening digital and low-carbon capability, improving progression and expanding flexible, employer-responsive training among its priorities.

For construction, this means maintaining a clear focus on both today’s vacancies and tomorrow’s requirements, including electrical installation, carpentry and joinery, plumbing and HVAC, bricklaying, surveying, civil engineering, project management and trade supervision, alongside growing requirements around retrofit, Modern Methods of Construction and digital capability.

The message from the session was clear: West Yorkshire has significant investment, provision and expertise, but continued collaboration is essential to connect employers to that support, create opportunities for new entrants and ensure training keeps pace with a changing industry.

Bringing the construction skills system together

The session brought together:

Sarah Keyworth, Equans; Jonathan Hemmingway, Abrahams and Carlisle; Chrissy Shepherd and Carla Prickett, CITB; Ewan Metcalfe, Forging Futures; David Maddison, Alstom Transportation UK / Liverpool Manchester Railway; Robert Smith and Robert Holmes, Leeds College of Building; Kathryn Whittingham and Debbie Lee, Heart of Yorkshire; Jemma Carmody, CECA Y&H; Denise Cherry, Yorkshire Youth Training Group; Joanne Patrickson, West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges; Carly Boden, WYCA; and Charlie Jerram, Skills House.

Their contributions provided valuable insight into what is happening on the ground and where collective action can make the greatest difference.

Through the West Yorkshire LSIP, the Chamber will continue to bring employers, education and training providers, sector bodies and regional partners together to ensure that local skills provision responds to current and emerging construction workforce needs.

What happens next?

Feedback from the roundtable will help inform continued LSIP delivery, with a particular focus on:

• improving visibility of funding, grants and employer support;
• strengthening routes from training into sustainable employment;
• responding to shortages caused by replacement demand and an ageing workforce;
• ensuring provision keeps pace with retrofit, Net Zero, digitalisation and Modern Methods of Construction; and
• maintaining a strong two-way relationship between employers and skills providers.