Our story

CITB is the industry training board for construction in England, Scotland and Wales.

Our aim is to attract workers to the industry, develop their skills and build a better Britain.

We are an executive non-governmental public body sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions. This means we manage our own budget and work, but we answer to the government and Parliament.

Our purpose

We want to ensure a skilled, competent and inclusive construction workforce.

Our history

1964: The Industrial Training Act creates 21 new industrial training boards to tackle UK skills shortages. These bodies can collect a levy from firms to fund training for workers. CITB is set up on 21 July to support the construction industry.

1966: CITB’s first training centre opens at Bircham Newton, Norfolk. Centres in Glasgow, Birmingham, London, Derbyshire and Kent follow. Together, they form the National Construction College.

1982: A new Industrial Training Act replaces most training boards with employer-led bodies. These cannot charge a levy.

1989: Construction employers win the fight for CITB to keep its levy system. This is due to the nature of the workforce: mobile, fixed term and subcontracted. To this day, CITB continues to ensure industry backing through its ‘Consensus’ process.

2003: CITB renamed CITB-ConstructionSkills, also known as ConstructionSkills or CSkills. This change is reversed in 2013.

2016: Former sponsor Department for Business, Innovation and Skills disbands. CITB moves to the Department for Education’s remit.

2017: Following a government review, CITB restructures to simplify processes and moves its headquarters to Peterborough.

2025: CITB moves to the Department for Work and Pensions’ remit.

What we do

We stand up for industry. Together with government, businesses, and communities, we work to improve UK construction.

This includes:

  • Encouraging people into construction

  • Developing training and skills frameworks for now and the future

  • Supporting employers to train workers

  • Working with partners across the sector

  • Representing and influencing industry.

Our plans and performance reports

We publish regular industry reports. These include:

• Business Plan - published annually

• Strategic Plan - published annually

• Nation Plans - published annually

• Performance Reports - published quarterly

• Net Zero Action Plan - updated regularly

For more information, visit our Plans and Performance page.

Our partners

While we work with many organisations, our key partners are:

• Construction Industry Council (CIC)

• CITB Northern Ireland (CITB NI)