NIA Response to the Department for Work and Pensions ‘Industry Training Board Reform’ Consultation

The Nuclear Industry Association strongly opposes the merger of ECITB and CITB, due to concerns over the potential loss of focus on specialist workforce requirements for high-hazard industries in the proposed unified ITB. Efficient workforce development and mobilisation for maintaining the existing nuclear fleet and delivering new-build projects is vital for realising the Government’s decarbonisation, energy security, and economic growth ambitions.

Over the past 35 years, the ECITB has built programmes with specialist expertise in high-hazard industrial training, qualifications and competence standards, which are needed now more than ever for safety-critical sectors like nuclear. The ECITB has also established sector-specific diversity initiatives which specifically target the barriers to entry faced by underrepresented groups in high-hazard engineering environments.

A merger of ECITB and CITB would risk resource allocation away from the specialist focus of the ECITB, money intended for training being allocated to managing the merger, and creating a system where some firms pay significantly more than before.

We therefore strongly oppose the merger of ECITB and CITB, and instead encourage major civil engineering scope to be transferred from CITB scope to ECITB scope to align the ECITB to the full lifecycle of major infrastructure delivery.

Benefits of the merger identified by the Government could still be realised through a formal, statutory collaboration framework between ECITB and CITB, which could cover joint workforce forecasting, interoperable competence standards, shared careers promotion, and coordinated major project skills planning.

Please click here to view our response.

Further Information

The NIA is the trade association and representative body for the civil nuclear industry in the UK. We represent more than 340 companies operating across all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle, including the current and prospective operators of nuclear power stations, international designers, and vendors of nuclear power stations, and those engaged in decommissioning, waste management and nuclear liabilities management. Members also include nuclear equipment suppliers, engineering and construction firms, nuclear research organisations, and legal, financial and consultancy companies.

The NIA is happy to provide more context, or any clarifications desired on the content of our response and to ask our members where appropriate for additional information that may be useful.

Please contact Elisabeth Roden, Policy Analyst for the Nuclear Industry Association, at [email protected] to do this.