UK Construction Week London 2026: New CITB Skills Hub Takes Centre Stage
UK Construction Week London returns 12-14 May 2026 with a first-time CITB collaboration and a dedicated ConTech & AI Stage. Inside the lineup that puts the skills crisis front and centre.
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Next week, UK Construction Week London returns to Excel London for three days (12-14 May 2026), and for the first time it merges with Futurebuild to form what the organisers are calling the largest built-environment event in the UK calendar. Around 25,000 professionals, 600+ exhibitors and 700+ speakers across 14 stages.
The headline change this year is a structural one: a new Skills and Training Hub built in collaboration with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB). It is a direct response to the skills shortage that has dominated industry discussion for the past 18 months, and it sits alongside a brand new ConTech & AI Stage where vendors and operators will showcase how augmented reality, AI agents, and digital tooling are reshaping how trades teams are trained and deployed.
What is on the agenda
The five main stages this year:
- Culture & Skills Stage - workforce shortages, the apprenticeship pipeline, and inclusive workplace design
- ConTech & AI Stage - digital construction, AR/VR training, AI-assisted dispatch and quality control
- Housing Stage - meeting the 1.5 million homes target by 2029
- Marketing & Procurement Stage - go-to-market for trades businesses
- Offsite & Industrialisation Stage - modern methods of construction
The Skills and Training Hub itself runs a three-day rolling programme of talks, live demos, and panel discussions covering everything from CITB-funded routes into the trades to the role of AR training in compressing time-to-competency.
Why it matters now
The numbers behind this year's focus are stark. According to recent reporting from Construction News, nearly three quarters of small builders surveyed in early 2026 said they had been affected by a lack of skilled tradespeople, with almost half reporting that shortages had delayed jobs and more than a fifth saying shortages had led to work being cancelled outright.
Pair that with the fact that almost a million 16-24 year olds in the UK are now classified as NEET (not in employment, education or training) and you have a sector that desperately needs labour at exactly the moment a generation of potential entrants is sitting idle.
That mismatch is why the CITB Hub matters. It is the first time the body has had a dedicated, multi-day venue at UKCW to engage directly with employers, training providers, and prospective apprentices in one place.
What TrainAR will be watching
Three things on our radar:
- The ConTech & AI Stage lineup - how vendors are framing the role of AR and AI in trades training. Most of the conversation has been about office-based BIM and project planning. The shift to on-tools, in-the-lens guidance is more recent.
- CITB's apprenticeship updates - anything new on the Low-Carbon Heating Technician pathway and on T-level placement pipelines
- Procurement and supply-chain conversations - particularly around how housing associations and large field-service businesses are rethinking workforce supply for the coming retrofit wave
If you are attending, find us in conversations on the ConTech & AI Stage. If you are not, the headline talks will be available on demand a week or two after the show.
The bottom line
UKCW London 2026 is not a normal trade show. It is the first big convening of the post-merger Futurebuild/UKCW super-event, the first dedicated CITB Skills Hub, and the first year the ConTech and AI conversation has had its own stage. The skills crisis is no longer a niche topic at the back of the programme; it is now the spine of the entire event.
For TrainAR, that is the right shift at the right time. The technology to compress time-to-competency exists. What the industry needs now is a place to talk seriously about how to deploy it at scale. UKCW 2026 is finally that place.
