The government will announce at the end of this month whether plans for a national construction skills academy will go ahead.

The government asked the Learning Skills Council and CITB-ConstructionSkills to draw up detailed proposals for the academy at the end of last year, with the aim of making it one of four vocational skills centres to be launched this September.

However, the government has delayed making a final decision on the schemes to allow for further research, and is now expected to make an announcement on the initiative in late October.

Rather than being a single national centre, the academy would take the form of a series of centres on major sites across the UK, such as the Olympics project and Heathrow Terminal 5. The scheme is understood to have the backing of a number of major contractors, including Skanska and Bovis Lend Lease.

Peter Lobban, CITB chief executive, said: 鈥淭he approach is designed to overcome the challenges of training a mobile workforce in a sector made up of large numbers of very small firms and sole traders.鈥�

About 65,000 young people in the UK took part in construction-related events as part of National Construction Week this week. The events, supported by schools and construction companies, aim to highlight the range of career opportunities in the industry.