Catalogue Category: Construction

Join our Health & Safety in Construction Consortium

On Thursday, 6th March 2025, we hosted a successful webinar on Health & Safety in Construction. The session explored how immersive technologies provide a risk-free environment for learners to gain hands-on experience and develop critical thinking skills. Attendees discovered innovative approaches to closing skill gaps and improving safety on building sites.

Skills shortages in Health & Safety in Construction

The webinar underscored a pressing challenge facing the UK’s construction sector — a shortage of health and safety expertise. The UK’s built environment is at risk of becoming less safe due to this growing gap in critical skills.

A recent survey from the Association of Project Safety (APS) highlighted that job vacancies in construction design risk management are being filled by people moving from firm to firm rather than an increase in the candidate talent tool. Other factors impacting a gap in workforce skills in this area include an ageing population and the impact of Brexit. The APS represents around 3,500 professionals working in construction health & safety risk management.

A need to upskill the workforce

Looking at the findings from the APS survey more closely, the reasons for the skills gaps are:

• vacancies in construction design risk management being filled but at increased cost and possibly reduced levels of skill and experience;
• the pool of candidates comes from people already working in the UK industry, with little sign of fresh blood; and
• an employment timebomb, with people leaving their jobs, often to retire, or with plans to stop work in the next three years.

There is a clear need to upskill the workforce in this area.

Immersive learning to bridge the skills gap

To address this problem, we are forming a new consortium to bring education and industry partners together and develop an immersive learning program for Health & Safety in Construction. The virtual program will equip learners with the essential skills for success in this sector.

Become a consortium partner

Contact us to discover the advantages of joining our Health and Safety in Construction consortium as a partner. By collaborating with us, you can actively shape course content and receive a lifetime license for the co-created program.