Addressing the Demand for Training

CFA and FITA Training Manager Shaun Wadsworth provides an overview of the 2025 Contract Flooring Industry Training Guide.

I’m pleased to announce the release of the CFA 2025 Contract Flooring Industry Training Guide. The guide is the definitive resource for the latest information on sector training opportunities in the UK, including apprenticeships, qualifications, training courses, funding and recruitment signposting. It is important employers have access to this kind of information to make calculated and informed decisions on a wide range of topics, training being one of them. The guide is also available digitally as a download through the CFA website www.cfa.org.uk or read it online at www.contractflooringjournal.co.uk.

The CFA provides advice on training as one of the many membership benefits available and is fairly unique in co-founding its own training organisation, the Flooring Industry Training Association (FITA), to deliver formal training to the industry.

The training and upskilling of current and future floorlayers remains a central topic in nearly every conversation I have. As a Training Manager, this focus is naturally a key part of my role, but the sharp rise in demand for training has been striking. Whether supporting training providers or introducing new programs to our sector, the need has grown significantly since I began working on this guide.

This increase reflects the challenges in the current skills and labour market. According to CFA data gathered from its members, the skills and labour gap for floorlayers has expanded from 11% in 2019 to 18% in 2024.

At the CFA, we believe that the growing dialogue around skills and training has been partly driven by our efforts to address the skills and labour shortage through the Future Fitter campaign. This initiative has one clear goal: to identify and increase the number of floor fitters of all ages entering the UK’s commercial and domestic floorlaying sector. Our approach focuses on providing support and training to create pathways for individuals to become skilled and qualified installers.

Through this campaign, we’ve engaged with a wide range of stakeholders, including Contractors, Training Providers, Manufacturers, Distributors, Careers Advisors, and Schools, to explore practical solutions for tackling the sector’s shortages. CFA has supported training providers in sourcing instructors, materials, tools and equipment; held STEM Ambassador and Open Doors events across the UK; supported in the creation of apprenticeship opportunities in Wales; and supported the continuation of apprenticeship delivery in Scotland after 18 months of upheaval that has been well documented in my CFJ and Floorscape articles. One huge success for 2024 was successful completion of funding and content review for the Apprenticeship Standard in England. With the support of a dedicated working group chaired by Alan Gayle of A.G. Flooring Ltd, there has been a full review of all content and a 30% uplift in funding.

The CFA also continues to work in conjunction with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) to review the current Floorcovering National Occupational Standards (NOS) which directly makes up both S/NVQs in floorlaying and the Modern Apprenticeship programme in Scotland and Wales. This outlined that the NOS was outdated in relation to the activities and demands of a current flooring installer and a group of CFA member sector professionals went to work in rectifying this. At the time of writing this work is still to be formally completed but what has been confirmed is that the current floorlaying NVQ Level 2 in England will change to a NVQ Level 3 Qualification.

The opportunities this will create for the flooring sector are excellent, raising the profile of the qualification alongside other similar construction trades where the CFA believe it rightfully belongs. The results of the review also present new opportunities to engage with training organisations that were currently unavailable to our sector such as ELCAS (Education Learning Credits Administration Service) who offer training support for those leaving MOD service. We also envisage better collaboration with DWP (Department for Workplace and Pensions) and prisoner reform agencies in the same vein which allows our sector to tap into areas of new skills and labour that were previously not available.

A large and important project that CFA will begin work on in 2025 will be around the Building Safety Act and in particular the creation of a competence framework for the flooring sector. Competence frameworks are being developed across all areas of construction and aim to set out and define the core competence requirements for individuals across the built environment. They are made up of a Route to Competence and a SKEB document (skills, knowledge, experience & behaviour) and an Implementation Plan. CFA will create a working group of members to develop a framework for flooring engaging with CITB, CSCS and other construction stakeholders to ensure the flooring sector is fairly represented. It is also critical to highlight all of the hard work and development of training opportunities that have been created in the flooring sector over the past few years.

The CFA continues to proactively represent members’ views on training and related funding to regulatory bodies and CITB, while at the same time investing in its own training organisation, the Flooring Industry Training Association (FITA), which was specifically set up to deliver some of the training required by the flooring sector. This type of venture is relatively unusual for a trade association to undertake and demonstrates the level of our commitment. This includes increasing the apprenticeship delivery at the Loughborough training centre to 50 apprentices on rolling cohorts and further cohorts in conjunction with industry stakeholders also planned for 2025.

Finally, the combination of short duration courses, qualification support (including NVQ assessment and onsite assessment), sector specific accreditations and clear focus on apprenticeships, means that through both FITA and other supported activities, the CFA is extremely active in delivering much of the training the sector needs.

The Training Guide is a great source of a wider range of training related information:

• Want to know more about apprenticeships? Look no further, the guide contains all information around apprenticeship training and recruitment for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in their own dedicated sections for ease of reading with links to provider information too.
• Looking for additional training? There is a huge list of manufacturers’ training opportunities in this guide, with specialist training courses and contact information. There’s also the comprehensive list of short courses offered by FITA, the training arm of of the CFA for the commercial and domestic sector.
• Need some help funding training? There are various sources of grants, funding and free training available to support employers through manufacturers, Government funding and organisations such as CITB. All contact details of the key businesses and organisations are provided including advice and guidance on funding and grants for help in business improvements and bespoke training opportunities.
• Need a formal qualification? The guide boasts an extensive list of all training providers and contact details of those that offer the right qualifications within the flooring industry for your needs. This also saves you time in scouting around for the information.
• Needed a carded workforce? We have all the information you need with detailed explanation on the application process for a CSCS card including what type of card you can apply for, based on the qualification(s) you hold.
• Struggling with recruitment? For those of you who are looking at recruitment future employees it includes information skills and labour recruitment including dedicated help such as Talentview Construction and The Talent Retention Scheme.
• Want to organise some health and safety training? To actively support floorlaying companies in complying with the Build UK Training Standard, we have listed CITB training courses which will meet managers’ and supervisors’ needs and may attract attendance grants if you in scope to CITB.
• Plus, lots more!

Hopefully this gives everyone an overview of the content in this year’s Training Guide and provides plenty of information about potential areas of interest. Got a question regarding something in the guide? Do you want to be included in the guide next year? Or just have a training enquiry in general? Please feel free to get in touch and I would be happy to support: 0115 950 6836, shaun@cfa.org.uk, www.cfa.org.uk.