South: Construction firms must tackle region’s chronic skills shortage, warns Beard

More contractors should work with local schools to improve careers advice and enthuse students at an early age, says leading construction company Beard.

Mark Beard, chief executive, said: “Students need to know that building London’s Olympic Park, a life-saving hospital or a cutting-edge university research facility, is as exciting and important as a career in finance, medicine or IT.

“Unfortunately only a few young people see construction as a viable, well-paid or exciting industry to work in because careers information at school is generally inadequate and outdated.

“There is also a perception that construction is a physically-demanding industry which is unsuited to women, which is not the case.”

Beard believes that young men and women are sadly missing out on a huge range of attractive, high-salary career opportunities in construction which require all sorts of different skills-sets and specialisms. 

Beard, whose company has been offering structured training schemes for school leavers and graduates for many years, concluded: “We can’t wait for bright and talented young people to come to us, we need to go into schools and colleges and inspire and engage them in the classroom. We must build better relationships with careers advisers and teachers, ensure they have high-quality information and materials which provide accurate and informed advice, and help them to make industry-related educational visits.” 

According to the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), the industry will need more than 36,000 new workers annually to cover the current building demand. A recent RICS UK construction survey reports that construction firms are struggling to recruit this workforce, with bricklayers and quantity surveyors in particularly short supply.

Construction is one of the largest industries in the UK, employing around 2.1 million workers and about 10% of the country’s workforce. But the industry faces a rapidly-ageing population with huge levels of retirement over the coming years and fewer new entrants. While the sector could be providing thousands of young people with an exciting and valuable career, construction’s “low-status” image is crippling its ability to attract and train the skilled workforce it needs to deliver the south’s growing construction output and end the stifling of regional economic growth.