Much of the discussion around construction's skills shortages focuses on what can be done about apprenticeships, colleges and encouraging more young people into the industry. Yet buried within Skills England's latest report, there’s a message that receives far less attention: education alone won't solve the problem.
As gaps in the construction workforce continue to widen, the sector faces increasing pressure to adapt and attract new workers. According to Skills England, reskilling adults will be essential.
At the moment, demand and projected activity are rapidly outpacing the number of qualified workers available to the sector. According to Skills England, construction must grow its workforce by more than a quarter in the next decade, equating to an additional 493,000 people.
The organisation also says that due to the scale of projected demand, the education pipeline alone will not be sufficient in developing this level of talent.
While the report does highlight that colleges, universities and apprenticeships still hold a critical role in meeting employer demands in key sectors, it also points towards shorter, more flexible courses holding a vital role alongside these traditional entry points when it comes to upskilling and reskilling.
"The scale of projected demand suggests the education pipeline alone will be insufficient to meet employers’ needs. Therefore, significant reskilling of the existing workforce will be essential" - Skills England: Annual Skills Report 2026
Reskilling adults essential to tackling construction skills shortages
In response to these long-standing skills shortages, much of the attention has focused on improvements to the more ‘traditional’ methods of construction training: apprenticeships and higher education courses.
For instance, the government recently announced a £625 million Construction Skills Package dedicated to delivering up to 60,000 new skilled workers. A large portion of this will be devoted to new apprenticeship schemes and Technical Excellence Colleges.
While this is, of course, fantastic news, it does little to move the needle in terms of immediate impact, failing to address the significant gaps being felt across the sector right now.
This is where reskilling adults can play a vital role. Many career changers are unlikely to benefit directly from improvements to apprenticeships and traditional college pathways, making flexible training options increasingly important.
Flexible and accessible training pathways are an essential way of attracting later-stage career changers to construction. For this demographic, spending years training simply wouldn’t be feasible, but by offering things like home-study and flexible, part-time construction training, the industry gains access to a vast new skills pool.
"Our SNAs (skills needs assessments) highlight that demand for priority jobs in key sectors, including clean energy, construction, and digital, will continue to grow. This reaffirms the critical role of colleges, universities, and apprenticeships in meeting employer demand in key sectors, alongside the provision of shorter, more flexible courses to allow for up-skilling and re-skilling."
"This underlines the need for a skills system that not only delivers technical expertise for growth sectors but also embeds strong employability skills from the outset. Doing this will widen opportunity, support productivity, and ensure people of all ages can succeed in a fast-changing labour market." - Skills England: Annual Skills Report 2026
Why construction is an increasingly attractive career prospect
We recently covered how demand for construction training is now outpacing availability. So, why are more people being drawn towards the industry?
Several factors are driving this increased interest. Whether it's familiar benefits like clearly-defined career paths, progression opportunities and strong earning potential, or more modern sought-after traits like high resilience to the emergence of AI automation. For many, it could even be as simple as wanting to move into a profession that’s more hands-on.
What skills transfer well to construction?
“Employers consistently report they are looking for ‘work-ready’ recruits, people who can work well with others, engage confidently with customers, take the initiative, and demonstrate responsibility and accountability.” - Skills England: Annual Skills Report 2026
Skills from a wide variety of professions and backgrounds can transfer over to construction careers.
One common changeover we see at Able Skills is military personnel pursuing trade qualifications, as it offers a career that is physical, disciplined (in terms of both timekeeping and delivering high-quality work), filled with problem-solving and often reliant on teamwork.
Other sectors with a great range of crossover skills include logistics and manufacturing, both of which are again very hands-on and rely on high attention to detail, while those coming from a retail management background and office roles will often have the crucial people management, communication and clerical skills that are all highly valuable when working in construction, be that on the tools or in administrative roles. It’s not just technical skills; it’s strong employability skills too.
Skills England's latest report makes it clear: if the sector is serious about tackling workforce shortages, reskilling adults and supporting career changers will need to become a much bigger part of the conversation.