Stephen Kemp was CITB National Training Group Chair and a member of the CITB Scottish Advisory Committee.

He is also managing director of Orkney Builders (Contractors) Limited and President of the SBF trade body.

The Enquirer understands Kemp has now quit his CITB roles following a dispute over apprenticeships and a lack of consultation with contractors by the training body.

In a resignation email to CITB chief executive Sarah Beale, Kemp states: “I have felt for some time now that CITB operate in a manner to achieve agreement for what they want to do, rather than what the construction industry or local communities need to run their businesses in an economically viable way, with the resources they need to do it.

“As a levy payer and a business that employs directly (and who value very highly craft apprenticeship training) I feel that CITB are certainly losing the confidence of key players in Scotland.”

Mark Noonan, Industry Relations Director at CITB, said: “Stephen Kemp resigned from his roles on two of our advice committees in July.

“We wrote to him on 17th July to express our gratitude for his valued contributions and to invite him to a meeting to discuss his concerns with us.

“We also explained CITB’s position with regards to his comments about changes to the governance of the Scottish Craft Apprenticeship framework. Our consultation saw over 1000 Scottish Employers vote 95% in favour of the changes to the framework. The improved, better-regulated qualification is now in place and we are seeing strong levels of recruitment in line with our expectations.”

“It is always difficult when there are differing views among motivated employers, but we continue the conversations that started after Stephen’s resignations to address this and I am currently arranging to meet Stephen to explore how we could get his valued support and input in future.”