FIS became a CITB consensus federation for the first time this year and conducted its first survey of members on the future of the levy in September.   The result of the survey reflected feedback from members over a sustained period, with 60% voting to reject the CITB levy proposal.

CITB and the levy is however likely to continue as a majority of the construction industry have accepted CITB proposal.

Only a small number of federations and companies have rejected the offer and the advantages of FIS gaining consensus status is clear, in that we are now able to register our own distinct vote on the subject.  This allows us to press your message and views to CITB and government in a much more effective way.

There are some important lessons to be learned from our members rejecting the levy proposal.  Firstly, it is clear that CITB is not serving the interests of members, with only 35p in the pound paid in levy being returned to members, despite a growing skills problem in the sector.  For this reason FIS has backed BuildUK’s urgent call for reform of CITB.

Secondly, it is evident that SMEs are not engaging with training and skills because of the complexity of the process and the perceived cost of training.  We will continue to work with CITB and training providers to make this process as “frictionless” as possible for contractors.  Initiatives such as Coursesight which allows you to book courses, receive CITB grant payments and updates the CSCS card automatically will continue to be promoted.

The FIS Skills team are a dedicated resource set up to help members get the skilled workforce they need.

As a first step contact skills@thefis.org to find out how to get more from the CITB training levy.