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Possibly as a model, but there is not enough published evidence to say it has solved construction’s wider people problem. AccXel is an industry-led construction training centre in Cinderford, Gloucestershire, created by the KW Bell family after it concluded that the available pool of skilled workers could not support the company’s growth. Its distinctive proposition is to combine employers, colleges and universities with practical training designed to feel like a live work site.
That makes AccXel a credible response to a documented skills challenge. However, the best-known figure attached to the centre—an ambition to train 2,000 people a year—was reported in 2022 and has not been independently verified as an achieved result. Current sources do not publish completion, job-placement or vacancy-reduction data. The fairest answer to the title is therefore a qualified yes to “could it?”, not a claim that it already has.
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What is AccXel and why was it created?
AccXel is a construction skills centre in Cinderford, in the Forest of Dean. It grew from succession planning at family construction business KW Bell Group. As reported by Building in May 2022, Nicola Bird and her sister Natalie Bell believed the supply of skilled people was not sufficient to sustain the firm’s planned growth or protect its market position.
The family first developed a bespoke groundwork apprenticeship delivered through training hubs in Cardiff and Cinderford. Building reported that 15 apprentices graduated from that initial venture. The next step was a dedicated centre rather than a programme embedded in a conventional college.
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AccXel’s official account of its history describes a four-year development process and identifies Nicola Bird as the founder. It says the intended audience includes school pupils, school leavers, career changers, career starters and people already working in construction who want to upskill. The stated offer runs from entry-level training to management development, with qualifications ranging from NVQ Level 2 to postgraduate degree study through education partners.
Those descriptions explain the centre’s intended scope; they are not an independent assessment of course quality or learner outcomes. The crucial point is that AccXel was designed as a workforce intervention initiated by an employer, rather than as a training offer created in isolation from construction businesses.
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How is AccXel different from a conventional training setting?
Its central idea is to make training resemble the social, practical and operational conditions of a real construction workplace. In the Building feature, Natalie Bell said the centre was intended to make trainees feel as though they were “constantly on site”, rather than overlooked in a college environment.
That distinction matters particularly for plant operators and other roles where technical competence is only part of the job. Nicola Bird told Building that some training took place in a quarry with no other workers present, and argued that people could struggle to navigate the human and practical realities of a live site when they first encountered them. Her comments are a criticism of some training approaches, not proof that every conventional provider works that way.
The reported staffing model also sought an industry connection: Building said instructors were either recently out of industry or continued to work in it. The centre’s physical environment was intended to support that approach. A Keyline Civils Specialist case study describes a 980-square-metre learning space completed in the fourth quarter of 2021 and presents practical, workplace-relevant training as a core rationale for the project.
Building also reported that commercial relationships helped AccXel obtain approximately £500,000 of new JCB and Leica Systems equipment at no cost. That is a 2022 report, not a current inventory, so it should not be read as confirmation that the same equipment or value is available today.
Who funds and supports the centre?
The project combined public funding, private match funding and education and industry partnerships. Building reported that GFirst Local Enterprise Partnership awarded £1.96 million from the Getting Building Fund in August 2020 and that KW Bell match-funded the project. AccXel’s current About page gives the same £1.96 million figure, dated to October 2020, and attributes it to HM Government and GFirst LEP.
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The Keyline case study lists Gloucestershire College, the University of Gloucestershire, local employers and industry partners among the collaborators. Building reported 34 employer partners, collectively valued at £2 billion, which were expected to invest in young people within a 60-mile radius. That figure describes the partnership ambition reported at the time; it is not a current verification of the partner list or of each employer’s ongoing involvement.
This mix is significant because a training centre cannot by itself create a skilled workforce. Employers need to define the capabilities they require, education partners need to provide recognised progression routes, and learners need access to work experience or employment in which those capabilities can be used. AccXel’s design attempts to put those pieces in one regional setting.
How serious is Gloucestershire’s construction workforce problem?
The regional case for action is real, but the available statistics need careful labelling. The Business West Gloucestershire Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP), whose construction findings are labelled 2022–2023, identifies shortage occupations, skills for new technologies and more detailed employer requirements as priorities.
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Several figures show why employers and policymakers remain concerned:
- Office for National Statistics data cited by the LSIP put construction revenue streams in Great Britain at £115 billion in 2021. This is a Great Britain figure, not Gloucestershire turnover.
- The same source counted 2.15 million workers in VAT- and PAYE-registered construction businesses in Great Britain in 2021.
- A CITB forecast reproduced in the LSIP projected 224,900 additional positions over the following five years and said sector recruitment would need to rise by about 25%. That is a forecast, not a count of jobs that materialised.
- GFirst LEP figures cited by the LSIP put construction’s contribution to sub-regional gross value added at more than £1 billion.
- ONS Census 2021 data cited in the plan counted 32,797 people aged 16 or over in Gloucestershire across combined construction and related architectural and engineering categories. That broad grouping is not a count of people AccXel could train.
- CITB regional analysis reproduced in the LSIP estimated an annual recruitment requirement of 7,640 across listed South West construction and related roles, with an annual recruitment requirement of 3.20% of the 2022 workforce. The plan explicitly identifies this as South West data, not a Gloucestershire forecast.
- Local Government Association figures cited by the LSIP estimated 1,751 additional jobs in heat-pump installation and 1,265 in insulation installation. These are estimates associated with low-carbon work, not confirmed vacancies or AccXel outcomes.
Taken together, the figures establish a dated and substantial workforce challenge. They do not demonstrate that AccXel has reduced shortages, nor do they show that every projected role requires the same training route.
What was AccXel’s original scale ambition?
Building reported that AccXel aimed to train 2,000 people a year by its second year through apprenticeships, short courses and skill sets. That number is often repeated as though it were an operating result, but the source presents it as an ambition from 2022.
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The current About page describes the centre’s mission and programme range but does not publish a current annual learner count, completion rate, employment or apprenticeship-placement rate, or measured effect on vacancies. No reviewed source independently verifies that the 2,000-per-year target was reached.
This distinction is essential. A target indicates the scale the founders believed the model could support. It does not tell a prospective learner how many people currently attend, an employer how many graduates are available, or policymakers whether local recruitment pressure has eased.
What difficulties could limit the model?
Building reported that AccXel had difficulty getting onto the Department for Education’s apprenticeship training-provider register and was making another application in 2022. AccXel’s current site advertises 2027 apprenticeships, but the reviewed pages do not explain when or how the earlier registration issue was resolved. Anyone considering an apprenticeship should check the centre’s current regulatory and delivery status directly before signing up.
The founders also described the administrative burden of combining construction operations with education. Nicola Bird told Building: “You wouldn’t be a big construction company and foray into education, because it is not worth the time and cost.” That statement illustrates the challenge of employer-led provision; it is not evidence that the centre has failed.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsThere are practical limits as well. A realistic site environment requires equipment, instructors, maintenance, health-and-safety controls and enough employer participation to expose learners to varied situations. A centre may provide excellent preparation while still depending on contractors to offer placements and first jobs. Short competency courses also need to be matched to supervision, experience and the requirements of the specific role; a certificate alone cannot guarantee safe performance on every site.
Building reported that AccXel was developing a pre-employment testing programme with Swedish firm Tenstar Simulation. The reviewed current sources do not establish the programme’s present status or results, so it should not be presented as a proven assessment method.
Could an employer-led centre solve the wider people problem?
It could address several weaknesses at once, but no single centre can solve a national or regional labour-market problem on its own. AccXel’s model is most persuasive where the problem is a mismatch between what employers need and what entry-level training exposes learners to.
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Its potential strengths are clear:
- Workplace realism: training is deliberately situated in a construction environment rather than being only classroom-based.
- Employer feedback: businesses are involved in defining the capabilities and behaviours that new recruits need.
- Multiple entry points: the stated audience includes school leavers, career changers, new starters and existing workers.
- Progression: the advertised range from entry-level provision to management development could support a longer career pathway instead of a one-off certificate.
- Regional concentration: employers and education partners can coordinate around a shared local facility.
But the model must be judged by outcomes, not design alone. A serious evaluation would need to publish learner starts and completions, qualifications achieved, progression into sustained employment, employer retention or satisfaction, representation of under-served groups, and the proportion of training linked to documented shortage occupations. It would also need to show results over several years and distinguish apprenticeships, short courses and other learners rather than combining them into one headline number.
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How should employers assess AccXel against other training routes?
Employers should compare routes using the same questions rather than assuming that an industry-led centre is automatically better than a college, private provider or in-house programme. The available sources do not provide equivalent performance data for competing providers, so it would be misleading to rank them on outcomes that have not been measured consistently.
- Site realism: What equipment, simulated tasks, live-site exposure and supervised practice does the learner actually receive?
- Employer involvement: Which employers shape the curriculum, offer placements or recruit completers, and are those arrangements current?
- Range of trades: Does the provision cover the occupations you need, including emerging low-carbon and digital skills?
- Accessibility: Can school leavers, career changers, people changing sectors and existing employees enter at appropriate levels?
- Qualifications and status: Which awarding bodies and education partners are involved, and is the apprenticeship or qualification route currently authorised?
- Published outcomes: Are completion, achievement, employment and retention figures available, with definitions and dates?
- Support after training: Who provides supervision, mentoring and progression once a learner joins a contractor?
For a small contractor, the best route may be a combination: a practical centre for initial training, an employer placement for site habits and supervision, and additional specialist courses as technology or regulations change. AccXel’s existence does not remove the employer’s duty to assess competence and provide safe induction.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What would prove that AccXel has found the answer?
The strongest evidence would be a current, independently reviewed set of results linked to the centre’s stated purpose. It would show how many learners entered each route, how many completed, what qualifications they achieved, how many moved into relevant jobs, and whether they remained in the sector. Employer results should be reported separately from learner satisfaction, because a popular course is not necessarily a successful recruitment pipeline.
The evaluation should also compare outcomes with a reasonable baseline: local construction recruitment before the centre opened, similar providers serving comparable learners, or employers’ vacancy and retention data. Geographic scope matters too. A centre can be highly effective for the Forest of Dean while having little measurable effect on shortages across Gloucestershire or the wider South West.
Until those data are published, the responsible conclusion is narrower: AccXel demonstrates a plausible way to connect construction employers and education, and it addresses the practical realism that its founders believed was missing. It has not yet been shown, in the reviewed evidence, to have solved construction’s wider people problem.
What is the practical takeaway for a prospective learner?
AccXel is worth investigating if you want an entry route into construction, a change of career, an apprenticeship or additional skills while already employed. Start by checking the current course list, entry requirements, qualification or apprenticeship status, timetable, travel arrangements, employer-placement expectations and progression destinations. Ask for recent completion and employment figures rather than relying on the historic 2,000-per-year ambition.
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Also ask how much of the course is practical, who supervises it, what safety training is included and what happens after completion. A realistic training environment is valuable, but your first employer will still need to verify competence for the specific plant, trade and site conditions involved.
Verdict: promising test of a model, not a proven cure
AccXel is a serious, well-funded attempt to make construction training more employer-connected and more like the environment in which graduates will work. Its origins, partnerships, practical facility and broad target audience give it a credible theory of change.
The evidence stops short of proving a cure. Regional skills statistics are dated and sometimes cover Great Britain, the South West or broad occupational groups rather than Gloucestershire alone. The LSIP itself warns that shortages had not been matched against provider supply volumes. AccXel’s 2,000-learner figure was a target reported in 2022, and current independent data on learners, completions, jobs and vacancy reduction are not available in the reviewed sources.
So the answer is: AccXel could be part of the answer, and it is a useful model to watch, but the available evidence cannot honestly say that it has found the answer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is AccXel located?
AccXel is in Cinderford in Gloucestershire’s Forest of Dean. Its facility is described in a project case study as a 980-square-metre learning space completed in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Who founded AccXel?
AccXel was founded by Nicola Bird, part of the KW Bell family. The centre grew from the family construction business’s earlier groundwork apprenticeship initiative in Cardiff and Cinderford.
Does AccXel guarantee a construction job after training?
The reviewed sources do not state that it guarantees employment. Ask the centre for current progression, placement and employment data, and check what responsibility remains with the learner and recruiting employer.
Is the 2,000 learners figure AccXel’s current intake?
No verified current source establishes that. Building reported 2,000 learners a year as an ambition for the centre’s second year in 2022, while the current official About page does not publish an annual learner total.
