Strategic skills plan published
24th February 2026
UK: The Engineering and Building Services Skills Alliance (EBSSA) has published its strategic Sector Skills Plan, a comprehensive document setting out the sector’s skills needs and gaps.
The EBSSA claims this to be the first industry-led comprehensive skills plan for one of the most economically significant parts of the built environment sector.
The plan exposes ongoing skills challenges with over 50% hard-to-fill vacancies and declining apprenticeship starts, and warns that, if action not taken, these skills issues will persist and threaten future capacity to deliver on the Government’s housing and infrastructure targets, as well as the transition to net zero.
The plan was created with input from Actuate UK members together with other leading sector bodies, awarding organisations, skills partnerships and training providers. It combines government and industry data analysis to highlight the sector’s skills needs and gaps. It also summarises the sector’s strengths, existing good practice and spotlights the business environment within which many SMEs operate in the sector.
The plan makes ten recommendations for industry and government – the current focus for action is for England but there is recognition these actions will need to be considered in a UK-wide context.
The ten recommendations to government and industry are:
1. Formally recognise EBSSA. As the lead vehicle for convening engineering and building services input into skills policy design and workforce planning.
2. Use sector-led labour market Intelligence. Work with EBSSA and its members to maximise the benefits of sector-specific data and analysis.
3. Support SMEs. Boost financial incentives and practical support to help small businesses recruit, train, and retain workers.
4. Strengthen skills requirements in contracts. Include effective skills and employment targets in public and private sector contracts.
5. Review worker status. Align employment rights reforms with tax and NI reform to reduce reliance on casual labour and encourage investment in training.
6. Protect and expand industry-recognised training routes. Work with EBSSA to safeguard and grow industry-valued apprenticeships, NVQs, and experienced worker assessment routes.
7. Reprioritise adult upskilling. Improve funding and access to adult NVQ and experienced worker assessment routes.
8. Develop a national installer skills matrix. Clarify and rationalise skills requirements for energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies.
9. Boost tutor and assessor capacity. Recruit and retain more qualified staff to deliver high quality industry-recognised training.
10. Improve progression rates from classroom-based courses. Prioritise learners moving from classroom courses into industry-recognised training.
“With this plan we now have a unique opportunity to present a collective voice as a sector to Government, regional authorities and local skills partnerships and to maximise our efforts, remove barriers for our sector to train, upskill and plan a workforce for the future, worthy of our aspirations for a better, safer and energy efficient built environment,” said Actuate UK’s skills group chair and BESA’s director of competence and compliance Jill Nicholls.
