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Workforce development within the civil sector in South Australia is relatively immature and lacks formal structures. Much of the recruitment is undertaken by word-of-mouth, training is predominantly on-the-job and a large proportion of the workforce is approaching retirement. This project therefore set out to strengthen the recruitment, retention and training response for plant operators in this sector. The research highlighted several key challenges for the civil sector including: (1) the industry lacks a common identity, despite being well networked; (2) most new employees are taken on as labourers through labour hire companies on a casual basis with issues arising when transitioning labourers to plant operators; (3) experienced plant operators are unashamedly recruited through poaching from competitors; (4) civil enterprises used to conduct much of their own assessment and training but have moved away from this due to increased regulatory compliance; (5) training is predominantly on-the-job thereby recruitment tends to be bottom up with individuals recruited as labourers and then trained in-house, limiting entry for more skilled individuals; (6) changing attitudes to training between younger (less than 30 years) new recruits who place greater value on training, whilst older plant operators (40 plus years) consider assessment a more suitable term for their predominantly regulatory driven training; (7) training overlaps with other industry sectors such as transport and waste management indicating a need for the civil sector to work with these industries to address workforce development issues; (8) retaining labourers whilst they develop their skills to become plant operators is problematic due to long lead times and unmet expectations. Numerous recommendations have been made including the need to continue negating the ageing of the workforce, improving understanding of the scope of work covered by the sector, strengthening relationships with labour hire companies, developing realistic career pathways for new entrants, recognising there are 2 distinct groups (under 30 year olds and over 40 year olds) with very different needs and attitudes towards training, fostering trust and understanding between civil enterprises and RTOs, communicating realistic expectations of transitions from labourer to plant operator with clearly articulated pathways and assisting retention by improving work variety with older more experienced operators used in mentoring and training of new recruits.