Construction Heads Reject Apprenticeship Reform Proposals

Construction training providers have raised the alarm on apprenticeship reform, publishing an open letter to government.

In the letter, the British Association of Construction Heads (BACH) argues that construction has distinct and separate training needs to other sectors.

The letter sets out in detail why proposed government reforms to apprenticeships and other vocational qualifications may cause problems for the construction industry resulting in poor takeup and apprenticeship numbers falling even further.

The letter from BACH, says, “We believe the changes, as currently drafted, could reduce employer confidence in training routes, constrain SME participation, and jeopardise pathways to skilled employment.”

Rejecting the need for V levels and casting doubt on the sustainability of even the existing two T levels for the construction industry, BACH asserts that the focus on ‘biblical’ trades and house building ignores the largest sector in the industry – Civil Engineering and Infrastructure.

Ignores Roofing Trade

It also alleges the proposed reforms mismatch the balance and routes into level 4-7 supervisory and management roles with the training leading to those roles. At the same time, it says, the focus on trades ignores some of the vital occupations – including roofing and scaffolding.

The BACH organisation, which includes Nikki Davies Principal of Leeds College of Building in its leadership committee, also raises concerns about how the reforms fit with competency requirements in construction and CSCS cards.

AI to Assess Apprenticeships

While supporting the modularisation of apprenticeship training, BACH damns the use of AI to assess achievements.  Proposals to use sampling for competence assessments, instead of the current comprehensive end-point demonstrations of apprentice skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours (SKEB), BACH says could lead to a “reduction in quality assurance and a potential race to the bottom”.

It adds that the content of apprenticeship modules “must achieve competency and needs to be agreed by the employers, not solely written using AI tools”.

It also criticises proposals for Level 2 pathways into an occupation as too long and classroom-based for construction. It expresses concerns over whether Level 1 learners will be particularly adversely affected – a group that is sometimes already disadvantaged.

Competence

BACH’s open letter published today, follows earlier concerns raised by a construction industry coalition led by the British Woodworking Federation (BWF) working through the Industry Competence Steering Group’s Sector Lead Group 10 Installer and Trades. These concerns said the reforms would “cast doubt” on the competence of level 2 apprentices. It accused government of ignoring or dismissing all their feedback.

Construction Training Task Force

In its Apprenticeship revisions and adjustments status report – December 2025, the government quango dealing with occupational training, Skills England states:

“The construction sector has given us a clear message during the assessment reforms pilot about the need to review the content of apprenticeships, and to implement policy in ways that take account of evolving industry requirements. This has shown us that more work is needed to make sure we can deliver positive change for employers and learners.

“To tackle that, we are bringing together a task force including representatives of industry, regulators and others. This will help us to make sure important construction industry requirements and changes within the sector, such as the Building Safety Act, are fully reflected in the underlying occupational standards, and the task force will also help determine any further solutions that support the successful implementation of improvements to assessment in Construction & the Built Environment.

“This expert group will also support us to set a timetable for assessment changes that work for the construction sector.

“As a result, we are not expecting to commence any immediate work to apply apprenticeship assessment reforms to the construction apprenticeships at this stage. However, we are publishing this list now, to give an indication of which apprenticeship assessments will be prioritised for reform, once the task force’s work is complete.”

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