Press Release

National Construction Week launches in effort to attract 88,000 new recruits a year for next four years

5 October 2005

ConstructionSkills has launched National Construction Week in an effort to bring in over 88,000 new recruits a year for the next four years.  During the week, almost 70,000 young people are expected to take part in over 275 events around the country as the industry seeks to demonstrate the variety of careers in construction and the exciting prospects the industry holds.

The events for NCW 2005 have been structured around five core industry challenges: sustainability, specialists, diversity, skills and enterprise – with some exciting results.

Paul Sykes, Recruitment Manager at ConstructionSkills explains: “Making a strong case for a career in construction is vital if the industry is to deliver on its stretching targets.  We have roles for over 88,000 people and, as one of the country’s biggest employers, we need to get kids enthused about what a job in this industry can offer.

“As NCW is now in its ninth year, we thought this would be an opportune time to give added focus to our events, to ensure that they reflect the variety of the modern day construction industry to both students and teachers.

“It is great to see how the different teams across the country have tackled these themes. The resulting events provide a great opportunity to energise and enthuse the next generation of construction workers at all levels – the people who will design and build the future.”

As well as innovative event formats, some interesting backdrops are emerging, going well beyond the construction site round the corner. Castles, period properties, sports stadiums and art galleries are just a few of the more unusual venues being used to host events during the week which runs from 6-13 October.

As NCW also aims to showcase the industry to influencers of young people, a number of events have been arranged for teachers and careers advisers. In Greater London, the Education team is running an INSET teacher training day about the pilot GCSE in Construction qualification. In Yorkshire and the Humber, the NCW team has organised an event with Connexions, the careers advisory service, in an effort to ensure that this influential group has an up-to-date understanding of the career opportunities in construction.

Some examples of the events planned under each of the five themes are given below (more details available on www.ncw.org.uk):

Sustainability
The ‘Planning Challenge’ event at Swaffham Ecotech Centre will see teams of students tackling the debate over where to build new housing, through a planning consultation exercise.  Each team will represent a competing interested party, including first-time-buyer, conservation activist and property developer.

In Shropshire, students will visit the Greenwood Trust, a sustainable crafts and community centre, to talk to the developers about the environmental challenges they faced and measures taken to overcome them, including the use of locally-sourced timber and a unique recycling scheme.

Specialists
The ‘Attacking and Defending’ event at Stirling Castle will look at the evolution of the construction methods from medieval times to the present day, and school children will be split into two groups with the ‘defenders’ building a model castle wall and the ‘attackers’ building a catapult to breech their defences.

Diversity
The “Female Friendly Industry” event in Wales will match school girls from Years 9-13, with women in the industry for a one-day work shadowing exercise, to enable students to see what really goes on day-to-day, and to show that it’s not just about jobs for the boys.

Skills
“Bridge over the Cam” will see the grounds of Cambridge University hosting an NCW event. School children will be challenged to build model bridges over the River Cam as it runs through St John’s College.

Enterprise
Not satisfied with tackling just one structure, a number of events are challenging students to build whole communities. The ‘Ten Hour Town Challenge’ at the National Construction College in Bircham Newton, and the ‘Model Village Design Challenge’ at Loughborough University, require teams of students to consider all elements of the built environment, with local construction professionals on hand to give advice.

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