Skills, sustainability and the future of UK construction
The UK construction industry finds itself at the crossroads of crisis and opportunity. Long plagued by skills shortages, the sector now faces a dual challenge: not only must it recruit and train enough people to meet growing demand, it must also equip them with the knowledge to build in a fundamentally different way. Decarbonisation, digitisation, and circularity have moved from the margins to the mainstream. Yet, the workforce required to deliver on those ambitions is alarmingly thin on the ground.
Recent figures from the Construction Industry Training Board forecast that 251,500 additional workers will be needed by 2028 — an average of over 50,000 per year. And this is just to keep pace with existing demand. The Office for National Statistics lists construction as having one of the highest vacancy rates across the UK economy with over 35,000 open roles, many of which have been unfilled for months on end. These shortages are already delaying projects, pushing up costs, and straining the resilience of delivery teams. But it’s the evolving nature of the job, not just the volume, that’s causing concern.
A recent industry survey conducted by MEDITE SMARTPLY and the Structural Timber Association (STA) reinforces this picture. In a sector under pressure to adopt low-carbon construction methods such as timber frame, respondents identified the workforce as a critical bottleneck. “The shift to MMC and timber frame is as much of a people challenge as it is a technical one,” said Roly Ward, Head of Business Development at MEDITE SMARTPLY. “We can’t build low-carbon homes at scale with a workforce that’s shrinking and ageing by the year. The reality is that many young people don’t see construction, and especially timber, as a modern, forward-facing career. That has to change.”
The need to reframe construction as a knowledge-led, forward-looking industry is increasingly urgent. From retrofit targets to Future Homes Standard compliance, net-zero delivery depends on a workforce capable of understanding the interplay between materials, carbon, and regulatory performance.
It’s in this context that Holcim UK has launched its Sustainable Construction Academy, a free-to-access CPD-certified digital learning platform aimed at built environment professionals. As Hannah Lisby, People Director at Holcim UK, explained, the programme is designed not just for internal teams but for the wider industry — a move driven by the recognition that technical change must be matched by knowledge transfer.
“At Holcim UK, we are on a mission to make sustainable construction a reality for generations to come,” she said. “While ensuring that the industry uses the most environmentally friendly materials is key to this, so too is creating a workforce that is in itself sustainable. This not only means giving existing construction professionals the skills and knowledge necessary for implementing innovative new materials, but also attracting more people to a career in the built environment.”
These knowledge gaps are compounded by persistent barriers to training. According to Lisby, “historically, one of the biggest barriers to upskilling has been the lack of training pathways available to construction workers. While many are eager to learn more, there has long been an absence of opportunities for people to access the education that they need to upskill. This makes initiatives like the Holcim Sustainable Construction Academy even more important.”
That sense of shared responsibility — where manufacturers, clients, and employers each have a role to play — is gaining traction. As Lisby put it: “We must work together as an industry to share knowledge and best practice so that everyone has the skills to make a success of sustainable construction the first time. Not only can doing so help firms to enhance the skills and expertise of their teams, but also allow this knowledge to be spread across the entire sector. In this way all can benefit equally, and the sustainable workforce of the future can begin to be realised.”
Of course, success also depends on better defining what performance means. The MEDITE SMARTPLY/STA survey found ongoing confusion around metrics like Pre-Manufactured Value (PMV), which underpin much of the offsite and MMC policy landscape. As Ward noted, “For PMV to be meaningful, it must be measurable — and that’s simply not the case for many smaller manufacturers. From our conversations, it’s clear that the principle is sound, but the metric doesn’t yet reflect the practical delivery challenges many in the industry face.”
Digital platforms like Holcim’s may offer part of the answer — not just in delivering knowledge, but in creating space for dialogue and feedback. “In the year ahead, digital learning will play an increasingly crucial role in construction,” Lisby said. “While on-the-job training will continue to be integral to personal development in the built environment industry, there is a growing need for this to be complemented with additional learning, especially when it comes to sustainability. This is because this knowledge cannot necessarily be passed down from generation to generation as has traditionally been the case. Indeed, sustainable practices are still very much in their infancy, but without the luxury of time, urgent action is needed.”
Urgency is perhaps the most widely shared sentiment. Unless the industry addresses the structural and educational gaps that persist — from apprenticeships to CPD, from SMEs to specifiers — progress will stall. The materials may be changing, but it is people who will build the future. The real test for construction now lies not in blueprints, but in classrooms, in conversations, and in the collective will to close the gap between what we know and what we do.
