Construction college network launched: it's not just for new recruits

Leeds College of Building has launched a construction college network to widen training options for your staff across Yorkshire and the Humber, Construction Management (CIOB) reported on 23 September 2026. The report, by associate editor Nicky Roger, names bricklaying, carpentry, roofing and electrical work as the first priorities, because demand for those skilled workers runs high.

If you are weighing up hiring and apprentice training, the plan is not only about new recruits. The report describes support for people already on your payroll to build skills and progress, alongside fresh routes into the trade for young people and underrepresented groups. The apprentice you hope to take on is only part of the picture.

Leeds leads the construction college network

Leeds College of Building acts as the regional hub for the Construction Technical Excellence College (CTEC) network, working with employers, regional authorities and other training providers to share expertise and widen access to construction training. The CTEC network was officially launched at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds before more than 160 representatives from construction, education and local government, Construction Management reports. The broader plans reach into digital skills for construction, green technologies and modern methods of building, and stretch to the workforce that regional housing, infrastructure and retrofit projects will need.

The network’s stated ambition, as Construction Management reports it, is to train up to 40,000 additional people in high-demand construction trades by 2029. That sits against a wider gap: citing a CITB estimate, Construction Management puts the need at more than 41,000 extra workers a year across the UK, around 206,000 over five years, to meet baseline demand. The network is pitched as one regional answer to the UK construction skills shortage.

Construction Management also reports that work has begun on a newly acquired 5,000 sq m building on Melbourne Street in Leeds, beside the college’s North Street campus, a development it says will increase the college’s estate by around a third and forms part of the plan behind that training ambition. Both the building and the target are still work in progress; an opening date for training there is not given.

A plan for now, not a course you can book yet

For construction apprenticeships for your workforce, the practical limit is simple. The report sets out no course-by-course offer showing where your apprentice could train or when enrolment opens, and it leaves the participation route and eligibility for small employers open. Cost sits in the same gap: there is no word on which government funding for construction training would apply to an employee taking a course through the network.

So before you plan an apprentice’s time away from site, ring your nearest college in the network and ask when enrolment opens and what a place costs. A named college and a confirmed start date are what belong in the diary. There is nothing to book yet, but you will be near the front of the queue when there is.