The Federation of Master Builders have released a statement for results day 2024 encouraging young people to consider careers in construction
The Federation of Master Builders has released a public statement encouraging young people to consider construction careers in time for results day 2024.
The statement is also intended to break the stigma surrounding construction for many people.
There is a negative image surrounding construction careers
As ECITB has previously noted, construction careers are often not appealing for young people. More is needed.
Even more so for women, although there is a great satisfaction to be gained from working in construction, and those that do generally encourage others to consider it, uptick has been slow.
The latest state of trade statistics note:
- 54% of FMB members reported no changes in employment levels in Q2 2024 compared with Q1 2024.
- 41% of members are struggling to hire carpenters, up from 31% in Q1 2024.
- 43% of members have reported shortages of skilled tradespeople has resulted in job delays.
It’s clear that more people need to join the industry, particularly crucial in time for results day 2024.
Jeremy Gray’s (head of policy at FMB) statement encourages young people for results day 2024:
“As a profession, construction is more than people think. With a wide range of jobs from bricklayers, site mangers, planners and surveyors – it can be quite a lucrative and rewarding career.
“If more young people joined the industry, it would not only address our skills shortage and provide succession planning with an aging workforce, but also offers great local employment opportunities for school leavers.
“Labour’s housing target to deliver 1.5m homes over the next five years opens a door of plentiful opportunity for our sector. But it will require a huge uplift in the number of builders. We need to get 50,000 workers into the industry just to meet demand, but with big ambitions the Government and industry will have find many more.
“Recruitment can be challenging, which is why SMEs need support to onboard fresh staff. This is especially true when it comes to apprentices as builders need to balance paperwork with their own workloads. With the creation of Skills England, hopefully this signals the Government’s intention to boost vocational career paths, but they will need to work alongside existing bodies, like the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) to help builders hire new starters.
“Construction is a positive, lucrative and entrepreneurial career path.”
“With the Labour government’s ambitious target to build 370,000 homes a year, a figure not reached for 50 years, we should see this as a fantastic opportunity for SMEs to grow.
“Construction is a positive, lucrative and entrepreneurial career path. Apprentices pass the line into work debt free compared to students. Many construction roles, such as a skilled bricklayer will pay more than many graduate jobs. If we make training more accessible and help provide the opportunities for young people, this will help to achieve what is an ambitious target.”
