WHAT THE CSCS AGE DATA REALLY MEANS FOR PILING A PRG Perspective on the “1 in 4 Under 30” Statistic
Published by Piling Recruitment Group | pilingrecruitment.co.uk
The latest CSCS cardholder data has been making the rounds in construction circles, and the headline is broadly positive: 25.2% of skills cardholders in 2025 are under 30 — up from just 17% in 2021. Construction is getting younger, the narrative goes.
That’s worth acknowledging. But before declaring progress made, it’s worth looking more carefully at what those numbers actually represent — especially in specialist ground engineering, where the skills picture is considerably more complex.
WHAT THE DATA ACTUALLY SHOWS
The CSCS dataset spans the entire UK construction workforce: groundworkers, bricklayers, scaffolders, electricians, project managers, and everything in between. The improvement in the under-30 proportion reflects genuine progress — better apprenticeship uptake, stronger school-leaver engagement, and sustained campaigns like the Construction Industry Training Board’s Generation Construction initiative.
Source: CSCS Cardholder Data 2025; CITB Generation Construction campaign
Those gains are real and shouldn’t be dismissed. The industry is doing better at attracting young people than it was four years ago, and that matters.
But a CSCS card is a baseline — not a competence certificate. It confirms someone has met a minimum standard. What it doesn’t tell you is whether that person can run a CFA rig on a fast-moving residential programme, manage a complex rotary bored pile sequence in difficult ground, or troubleshoot a concrete mix issue at 6am. That capability comes from time on site — from years of experience, not months.
THE RETENTION AND PIPELINE PROBLEM
The more pressing challenge for ground engineering isn’t who’s entering the industry — it’s who’s leaving it, and whether enough people are progressing far enough to develop the depth of skill that specialist work actually demands.
Fewer than 50% of construction apprentices complete their training. The overall construction workforce shrank by 7% between 2019 and 2024. Meanwhile, the industry needs approximately 225,000 additional workers by 2027 just to meet projected output demands.
Source: CITB Construction Skills Network 2025–2029 Outlook; ONS Labour Force Survey 2024
Those aren’t numbers that get resolved by improving entry rates alone. They point to a structural problem: people are coming into the industry, but not enough are staying and building the experience that contractors actually need.
In piling specifically, the development timeline is long. Entry routes — NPORS-accredited courses, apprenticeships with specialist contractors, progression from general groundwork — bring an individual to basic competence within 12 to 18 months. But basic competence isn’t operational readiness on a complex project. An experienced CFA rig operator — someone a contractor can trust to lead a shift on a tight programme with minimal supervision — typically has seven to ten years of site hours behind them. They’ve worked through varied ground conditions, concrete mix designs, and access constraints. They know what a change in drill resistance means before it becomes a problem.
Someone who completed their NPORS training last year is at the start of that journey — which is where everyone starts, and the beginning of a development process that takes real investment to see through.
THE VALUE OF EXPERIENCE ALREADY IN THE INDUSTRY
The experienced ground engineering operatives working in this sector are not a resource in decline — they are the operational backbone of every live programme and the primary source of practical knowledge for those coming through behind them.
According to the ONS, 35% of UK construction workers are currently over 50. In a specialist trade like piling, that portion of the workforce carries significant operational weight — and with it, knowledge that has been built over decades of site work. Retaining those people, and creating conditions where they want to stay, deserves at least as much attention as the campaigns designed to attract new entrants.
Source: ONS Labour Force Survey 2024
Contractors who are genuinely ahead of the skills challenge tend to share a similar approach. They identify workers with aptitude early and build structured development around them. They create working conditions that make it worth staying — not just in terms of pay, but in terms of career visibility and recognition. And they actively involve experienced operatives in developing the next generation, which benefits the whole team.
Retaining experienced people and developing new entrants aren’t competing priorities. They’re the same strategy.
A SECTOR-SPECIFIC LENS
According to CITB’s Construction Skills Network 2025–2029 outlook, the UK construction industry needs approximately 47,860 additional workers every year to meet output growth. Ground engineering accounts for a small but disproportionately critical share of that demand.
Source: CITB Construction Skills Network Outlook 2025–2029
Piling teams sit at the front of almost every significant build programme. They can’t be substituted with general labour. And the skills required to operate effectively in that environment accumulate on site, over years — through repetition, exposure, and the kind of practical decision-making that no course can fully replicate.
The “1 in 4 under 30” headline is worth celebrating. Youth engagement is improving and apprenticeship numbers are ticking up. But the gap that attrition — early leavers, career changers, health-related exits — continues to open will not be closed by improving entry figures alone. The industry needs to complete the training it starts, build pathways that are genuinely worth staying on, and recognise the experienced practitioners already in it as the competitive advantage they are.
WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE
Contractors who are getting ahead of the skills challenge consistently do a few things:
- They invest in structured development for younger workers, with clear progression rather than simply placing people and expecting results
- They retain experienced operatives through better pay, better conditions, and genuine acknowledgement of what they bring
- They build mentoring into how their teams operate — as a practical knowledge transfer mechanism, not an afterthought
- They work with specialist recruiters who understand where the experienced pool actually sits, and how to reach it
The “1 in 4 under 30” headline is a positive step. But it’s not the finish line.
At PRG, we work exclusively in piling and ground engineering recruitment. We see the experience gap at close range, every week. If you want a frank conversation about your resourcing position, we’re available.
📩 charlie@pilingrecruitment.co.uk | pilingrecruitment.co.uk
SOURCES
- CSCS Cardholder Data 2025 — cscs.uk.com
- CITB Construction Skills Network Outlook 2025–2029 — citb.co.uk
- ONS Labour Force Survey 2024 — ons.gov.uk
- CITB Generation Construction — citb.co.uk/generation-construction
