At a time when the construction industry is crying out for fresh blood, Andy Moss, Managing Director, Employer Solutions at City & Guilds, looks at ways the sector can attract youngsters into the sector...
Skills shortages are nothing new in the construction industry. A lack of awareness around opportunities and provision of effective training have hampered the industry’s efforts to recruit – with the pandemic only making things worse as projects froze, forcing trained professionals to seek opportunities in other sectors.
But since then, the situation only seems to have become worse. With open job vacancies in the UK at record highs, young people can afford to pick and choose which jobs they take – and many told us that they would never consider a career in the construction sector.
Recent research from Lightcast estimates that the industry will need to fill a staggering 250,000 job vacancies between 2022-2027; and 34,000 of those are brand-new jobs that didn’t exist before.
It’s critical that we make the industry more attractive to a broader range of young people if construction businesses are to meet their skills need in the future. If companies cannot fill these vacancies, and the workforce continues to age, clearly the skills chasm will only get wider.
Young people aren’t interested in careers in construction
According to our recent Youth Misspent research, only 6% of young people stated that the construction sector was where they wanted to work. That’s a shocking statistic in and of itself, and even more so when we drill down further, with just 2% of young women saying that they would choose a career in construction.
And there are clear reasons behind this. For example, many feel that they lack the right skills (34%), are being put off by manual work (35%) or believe that a lack of knowledge about the careers available within the industry (28%) is holding them back.
The bottom line is that not knowing enough about the industry itself, including the variety of roles available within it and the skills needed to fill them, seem to be the biggest barriers to entry for young people.
So, what can we do about this? Below are three practical steps that employers can take to start to address this challenge and fill critical skills shortages.
- Engage with young people via the skills system to provide better opportunities and progression.
Apprenticeships, Skills Bootcamps, and newly launched T-Levels are three examples of initiatives already on offer for employers to help them recruit and train young talent, but they are under-used by employers. We need more employers to invest their time and resource in engaging with these programmes and help foster a new generation of skilled workers.
2. Provide more work experience, paid internships or training opportunities, and work with education providers to raise awareness of careers on offer.
Work experience is often a part of the Year 11 curriculum. Approaching schools to offer places to work within a construction company for a week will increase accessibility into the industry and encourage young people to consider what a career in construction would be like. Additionally, T Levels require substantial work placements that are essential to the course, but many colleges report difficulty in finding enough businesses willing and able to offer them.
These experiences can span the wealth of roles within construction that young people are unlikely to know even exist, from manufacturing to marketing, at construction companies. What they imagine a career is like is often different to its reality, and experiencing a role first hand can demystify ideas about the sector and spark a previously unknown interest.
3. Make it easier for young people, especially the most disadvantaged, to access jobs and progress in their careers.
Young people who haven’t worked before are likely to have little experience with job application processes and can find them intimidating. They may even avoid applying for roles that they want or are a good fit for, as they might feel they don’t meet the criteria because of that lack of experience.
By widening the application process to focus on attitude and aptitude, young people will feel more empowered to apply for roles and become more comfortable with the idea of learning on the job. This way, they can focus on what personality traits make them a good fit, rather than the construction-specific skills that nobody can expect them to have at such an early stage in life.
Prioritising a good attitude and an appetite for learning in the recruitment processes will foster a better view of the construction industry as a place of lifelong learning and promote a healthier workforce that is more accessible for young people.