THE Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) has launched a new digital learning ‘ecosystem’ inspired by the look and feel of 3D gaming environments.
Dubbed ECITB World, it is the industry-led skills body’s new learning resource strand to sit within its award-winning e-learning portal – the Learning Experience Platform (LXP).
Inspired by classic video games, learners enter a recognisable environment made up of themed districts and complete learning within each one. Within this ‘world of learning’, ECITB-built courses will sit together in a consistent, recognisable way, rather than as standalone, disconnected modules.
The districts, which will be populated with multiple learning experiences, will be on themes such as health and safety, industry, technical, essential, professional, or future skills.
Chris Mann, ECITB director of learning and assurance, said, “ECITB World is our next-generation learning identity, built through gold standard e-learning on the LXP and designed to scale across all learning resources.
“Each module is a full e-learning course in its own right, but all courses share a consistent ‘world’ look, tone, structure and progression model to create a connected learner experience.
“Our ECITB World ecosystem will not just be an online experience. The same look and feel will transfer into our offline learning resources to create a transferable identity that extends beyond just e-learning.
“This includes PowerPoint learning packs, logbooks, learner records, supporting resources and workshop materials.
“The goal is to make our most-used learning feel more engaging, modern and achievable, while creating a recognisable learning brand that learners and training providers immediately understand and trust.”
The ECITB’s LXP was officially launched in January 2023 to provide in-scope ECITB employers within the engineering construction industry (ECI) more than 8,500 free online courses.
More than 140,000 courses have been completed on the LXP since then by workers across 195 ECI employers, delivering £4.8 million in value-add to industry.
The LXP’s success saw it labelled as an ‘inspiring example of sector-wide transformation through learning technology’ when winning the gold award at the 2025 Learning Technologies Awards for Best Digital Transformation Programme.
Popular, generic courses – such as manual handling, fire awareness and display screen equipment training – come from recognised providers such as IAM Learning, IHasco, and Litmos.
The creation of ECITB World is part of a plan to help grow the platform and populate it with ECITB-built courses and more industry-specific content tailored to the ECI.
The ECI underpins the delivery, maintenance and decommissioning of much of the UK’s critical infrastructure, spanning sectors such as oil and gas, nuclear, power generation, renewables, chemicals, and water treatment.
Chris continued, “Contextualising topics specifically for engineering construction workers and aligning courses to ECITB training standards will set the benchmark for quality and establish ECITB World as a trusted learning destination.
“Rather than generic training, the scenarios and examples reflect the environments ECI workers operate in as these courses have been co-created with industry experts.
“We also aim to deliver shorter, focused learning experiences on topics like PPE, lead awareness and fire extinguisher use. This content is typically around 5-10 minutes long and quicker to develop, allowing us to respond rapidly to industry needs.”
Learners will access ECITB World content and courses through the existing LXP delivery platform, which tracks learner progress, engagement and completions.
Features of these flagship courses include the ECITB Streak, achieved by collecting ECITB petals as learners progress, and mentors within courses aligned to real roles and working contexts.
Once learners complete a course, they receive ECITB World digital badges that can be shared as part of CVs, professional profiles and internal records. The first ECITB World courses to be launched are on manual handling and non-destructive testing (NDT), with further courses to be added later in 2026 such as digital literacy.
ECITB Manual Handling gives learners across the industry a clear, practical understanding of risks, responsibilities and how to make safer decisions before and during manual handling tasks.
The focus is on judgement, prevention and risk awareness, not just lifting technique. Aligned to ECITB training standards, the course provides foundational knowledge across roles and sectors, not proof of on-site competence.
Meanwhile, NDT Essentials is a short, awareness-level e-learning course designed to give the ECI a shared understanding of non-destructive testing (NDT) and why it matters.
