Is the Construction Workforce Becoming More Diverse?

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has found that more women are entering the construction industry and pursuing construction training. 

In an industry traditionally dominated by men, women have historically entered the sector in administrative roles, rather than taking part in field work.

Now, data has found that more women than ever are pursuing construction training, looking towards entering the field and diversifying the sector.

Gender disparity

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) is the industry training board for the sector, operating across England, Scotland and Wales. The goal of the board is to attract new talent and encourage skills development within the industry. This, it says, will help Britain gain a skilled, competent and inclusive construction workforce, with the aim of developing a future-ready sector that can meet ongoing demands.

The industry is significantly male-dominated, with this impacting the resources available to women who do work on-site. According to the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), women make up approximately 15% of the UK construction industry, with only 2% working on site.

Due to this, CIOB explains that this leads to women's voices being left out of the conversations and PPE being designed with men in mind, resulting in a lack of available female-sized PPE. 

However, this may be changing, as the CITB has found that more women are entering the construction industry, with higher numbers of women pursuing construction training. Utilising data from the Department for Education, CITB has found an increase in women starting construction apprenticeships, from 1,450 in 2018 to 2,410 in 2025. Moreover, the research found that in this period, the number of women completing a construction apprenticeship increased from 340 to 910. 

"It’s really encouraging to see the continued increase of women starting and completing construction apprenticeships," explains Deb Madden, Executive Director, Customer Engagement and Operations at CITB.

"It’s important that, as an industry, we retain these women and ensure their apprenticeships translate into long-term, secure job opportunities.

“Across the industry, we need to establish a culture that ensures it seeks to understand and meet the needs of people of all backgrounds. We need employers to establish clear and accessible pathways for a diverse range of candidates to learn and progress, making it more attractive for them to stay in the industry, and ensure all employees have a good work-life balance.”

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Closing the skills gap

Though this is a step in the right direction, it is not enough for these women to just finish the apprenticeships. The industry as a whole needs to introduce new policies that will promote gender equality in order to shrink the gender gap. More than this, it needs to ensure there is thorough and accessible training for everyone in order to further shrink the skills gap. 

Once these policies can be implemented, the construction industry of the future will look brighter, with more diverse voices developing more diverse solutions. 

CITB funds training and supports work placements through its Onsite Experience hubs. This creates a talent pipeline which meets the needs of local construction employers. It also creates more career opportunities for people from local communities, allowing for a strong local economy and community spirit.

Part of this includes its work with The Skills Centre, which is encouraging women to work in the industry with a range of activities. Following investment from CITB in the centre, 182 women have been trained to secure employment in the industry.

Unlocking workforce value

In recent years, there has been a greater push to face the wider issues of a limited workforce. In CITB's Construction Workforce Outlook, it explored insights into the UK construction economy, as well as forecasted trends of how the industry is going to change. 

According to CITB, estimated number of extra workers needed for the 2025-2029 period is at 47,860 per year, meaning the UK construction industry needs to recruit the equivalent of 239,300 extra workers over the next five years. This includes supervisors, skilled trades and site-based workers, office based workers and technical workers. 

Earlier this year, The Women and Work All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) released its ‘Women and Work APPG Report 2025’, which explored the barriers women in construction currently face and how they can be broken down. With a growing demand for a skilled workforce, encouraging diversity in construction could be the solution to meeting that demand.

As more women are taking that step towards a career in construction, it could be the beginning of filling that skills gap and building a more efficient construction workforce.