LABC welcomes latest cohort of trainees to public service building control network

On Thursday 19 December, LABC onboarded a further 30 trainees onto the groundbreaking LABC Academy trainee building control surveyor programme, providing an injection of talent into the building control profession. This fifth cohort of trainees adds to the 170-strong trainees employed by LABC on a two-year training programme to become Registered Building Inspectors (RBIs). 

The LABC Academy was created in response to new responsibilities introduced for public service building control following the publication of the Building Safety Act 2022. In addition to these new responsibilities, building control will be at the forefront of supporting the government’s objective to build 1.5 million quality new homes, and that will demand even more resources for public sector building control to support industry.  

Entering its third year, the LABC Academy recruits and trains building control surveyors across England and Wales. Trainees study for level 4 and 5 accredited qualifications with LABC’s award-winning learning and development team, alongside three days a week with their secondment local authority, to gain their all-important experiential learning. 

Over 100 local authorities are signed up to the programme and provide more than 140 mentors who are imparting their invaluable knowledge and experience onto the next generation of building control surveyors. The structured mentorship complements the learning and provides essential on-the-job experience to support trainees in developing their skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours.

The programme is proving successful with 98% of trainees passing the level 4 diploma, 53% of which received Distinctions.

The building control profession has seen significant change in recent years with practitioners now required to register to practice with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). RBIs must demonstrate their competence and register with the BSR at a class appropriate to the projects they work on and LABC’s suite of accredited qualifications align with registration classes and support building control surveyors on their journey to upgrading their registration with the BSR.   

The LABC Academy programme is testament to this with 50% of trainees proving their competence within 18 months, enabling them to register with the BSR at Class 2A. Trainees are becoming valuable assets to the local authority building control network, with over 20% of the first cohort securing permanent positions with their local authorities ahead of their LABC contract ending.