IN Brief:
- NFDC and the National Demolition Training Group are funding 60 CCDO Labourer Card pathways.
- Each place combines CCDO Labourer and Asbestos Awareness training, with a safety test required beforehand.
- Courses will run during September, October, and November online and at the NDTG centre in Hemel Hempstead.
The National Federation of Demolition Contractors is funding 60 training pathways intended to help new and existing construction workers obtain the qualifications needed to apply for a CCDO Labourer Card and begin working in demolition through a recognised competence route.
The initiative is being delivered with the National Demolition Training Group and includes both the CCDO Labourer training course and Asbestos Awareness training. Courses will run during September, October, and November 2026, either live online or at the NDTG training centre in Hemel Hempstead.
Applicants still have to meet entry requirements before attending. They must have passed the appropriate Operative Health, Safety and Environment test, with candidates directed towards CITB or NOCN, and need sufficient spoken, written, and reading English to participate safely.
The funded places remove one practical obstacle to entering specialist construction work: the upfront cost of recognised training before a worker has established regular income in the sector. Sixty places will not resolve demolition’s wider recruitment challenge, but they create a defined entry route for people who may otherwise have struggled to fund accreditation.
Demolition remains one of the parts of construction where competence can be underestimated by people outside the sector. Work may involve unstable structures, heavy plant, temporary works, hazardous materials, live services, dust, work at height, falling materials, contaminated sites, and buildings whose original construction information is incomplete or inaccurate.
The CCDO card system gives contractors a recognisable framework for role-specific competence rather than relying on general site experience alone. The Labourer Card is an entry-level qualification and does not demonstrate advanced demolition expertise, but it provides a formal starting point from which supervised site experience and higher-level qualifications can follow.
Including Asbestos Awareness in the funded package is particularly relevant. Demolition and refurbishment workers are among the groups most likely to encounter asbestos-containing materials in existing buildings, and recognition of that risk is essential before intrusive work begins.
Awareness training does not qualify someone to remove asbestos. Its role is to help workers understand where suspect materials may be present, recognise circumstances in which work should stop, and follow the controls established through surveys and specialist removal procedures.
Adrian Corrigan, president of the NFDC, said: “Supporting people into demolition and helping them gain recognised industry accreditation is an important part of our role as a Federation.”
The initiative arrives against a continuing construction skills challenge, with contractors seeking new entrants while experienced workers leave the industry and large infrastructure, housing, energy, and regeneration programmes compete for labour.
Demolition has an additional image problem because it can still be perceived principally as manual destruction. Modern projects rely increasingly on specialist plant, remote operation, engineering controls, structural sequencing, surveying, materials recovery, hazardous-material management, temporary works, and environmental planning.
Much of the technical work takes place before the main structure is touched. Contractors may need surveys, service isolation, structural information, waste plans, hazardous-material assessments, temporary works, exclusion zones, dismantling sequences, and decisions about which components can be recovered or reused.
New workers therefore need more than an instruction to stay outside a machine’s operating radius. Dust controls, plant separation, service information, exclusion zones, edge protection, and restrictions on disturbing materials all reflect hazards that may not be obvious to somebody arriving from another part of construction.
The funded programme cannot convert an inexperienced entrant into a competent demolition operative through a single course. Its practical value lies in establishing baseline knowledge and recognised accreditation so employers can develop new workers within a structured system of supervision and further training.
Delivery both online and at Hemel Hempstead should widen access, particularly for people already working elsewhere in construction. Candidates still have to complete the relevant assessment and prerequisite safety test, but the format reduces the need for every learner to travel to the training centre for the entire process.
There is also a direct commercial reason for demolition contractors to support structured entry pathways. Competence failures can produce injuries, damaged assets, enforcement, insurance exposure, stopped work, and programme delays, all of which are considerably more expensive than establishing basic training before a worker reaches site.
The labourer pathway is therefore only the beginning. Its value to the sector will depend on whether successful candidates find sustained employment, accumulate supervised experience, and progress towards higher CCDO levels or specialist occupations rather than remaining indefinitely at entry grade.
The 60 places are modest beside the built environment’s overall workforce requirement, but demolition is a specialist market in which relatively small numbers can still strengthen the available labour pool.
Applications are now open ahead of the first courses in September. For candidates, the immediate opportunity is to remove the cost of the first recognised training step; for contractors, the more meaningful result will be whether that investment produces operatives who remain in demolition long enough to build the competence that no short course can supply on its own.
