A mission for skills with Mark Reynolds

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Feb 9, 2026

Mark Reynolds, Chair of the Construction Leadership Council and Executive Chair of Mace, leads industry efforts on workforce and skills. He talks about launching the Construction Skills Mission Board to tackle UK labour shortages. Conversations cover aligning training with the infrastructure pipeline, creating local training hubs, boosting employer confidence, targeting the £625m skills investment and pushing for coordinated, practical collaboration.

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INSIGHT

Frequent Cross‑Sector Collaboration Is The Board's Edge

The board's distinguishing feature is intensive collaboration across government, training providers and industry meeting every six weeks with weekly working groups.
That scale and frequency aim to turn strategy into coordinated local hubs and national specialist provision.

ANECDOTE

Sizewell Training Hub As A Hub And Spoke Example

Nigel Cairn at Sizewell created a training hub linked to Suffolk College that acts as a hub‑and‑spoke for energy sector skills.
Mark uses Sizewell as a model to connect National Grid, Anglian Water and new hospital programme training through one hub.

ADVICE

Align Workforce Planning With The Infrastructure Pipeline

Link workforce planning to a clear infrastructure pipeline so employers can plan hiring and training ahead.
Mark Reynolds cites NISTA's infrastructure pipeline and upcoming workforce‑planning demo as the mechanism to connect jobs to training.

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This week's podcast celebrates the 150th episode by delving into one of the most urgent and complex issues that continues to challenge the UK construction sector – namely the critical shortage of skilled workers.

As we know, government plans to invest public and private funds worth over £725 billion in infrastructure over the next decade or so. That will decarbonise and secure our energy systems, reboot the nation’s transport networks, protect the environment, build 1.5 million new homes and retrofit some five million more.

The scale of ambition is enormous. But none of it can happen without the people needed to deliver it.

And that’s where the newly launched Construction Skills Mission Board comes in – bringing together senior industry leaders, educators, training bodies, government ministers and unions to ensure the sector can recruit, train and retain the workforce it needs to meet the demands of the decade ahead.

My guest today is Mark Reynolds, Chair of the Construction Leadership Council, Executive Chair of constriction giant Mace and also Chair of this new Construction Skills Mission Board.

Mark helped CLC to establish the board as a way to support the Government’s commitment to invest an additional £625 million in construction skills. And its inaugural meeting late last year was described as a pivotal moment that signalled a new level of urgency, coordination and commitment to solving one of construction’s greatest long-term challenges.

The goal is clear: to develop and drive a national strategy capable of recruiting an extra 100,000 workers each year. The focus is on five key levers: boosting employer confidence to invest, building clear entry pathways, improving access to training, ensuring effective funding and creating reliable, rewarding career structures.

So big ambitions but what’s next? Let hear more…

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