To celebrate Scottish Apprenticeship Week and highlight the opportunities, CITB welcomed Graeme Dey MSP, Minister for Higher and Further Education, to its National Construction College (NCC) in Inchinnan, Renfrewshire.

The Minister toured the NCC, seeing an array of apprentices in action, and spoke with various employers and apprentices about their experiences.

In its Strategic Plan 2025-29, CITB has committed more than £550 million to inspiring and enabling diverse and skilled people to enter construction.

This includes continuing to provide grants for employers who take on apprentices. From April 2023 to March 2025, CITB invested nearly £150m in apprenticeship grants.

CITB’s latest Construction Skills Network report found that the Scottish construction industry needs 26,100 workers between 2024 and 2028, additionally.

Statistics from Skills Development Scotland also show that there are currently nearly 14,000 construction apprentices in training in Scotland.

Apprenticeships are beginning to remain steady, with around 6,500 people starting construction apprenticeships in Scotland in each of the last three financial years, and this is set to stay on track in the 2024/25 financial year.

CITB Scotland currently manages nearly 4,500 apprentices, of which an estimated 1,260 will have started their apprenticeship in the 2024/25 financial year.