The CIOB is launching “Building Tomorrow”, a communications partnership with ITN Productions to produce a news and current affairs-style programme capturing the latest innovations and best practice in building and construction management.
Building Tomorrow will be a year-long project that will build up into an online TV channel specifically aimed at people already involved with the industry.
The programme will combine interviews with key figures in the sector with news-style reportage and sponsored editorial profiles of some of the leading organisations in construction.
In a series of short segments, experts will drill down into the key issues facing the construction sector, such as the role of technology, investment in developing skilled workers through apprenticeships, and the wider impact construction has on society, the economy and our environment.
The project has been launched with a short video of presenter Natasha Kaplinsky interviewing CIOB chief executive Chris Blythe.
The interview draws on the mismatch between the vast scale of the industry and its impact on the economy – employing up to 3 million people and accounting for 8% of GDP – and the public’s general low awareness of what it achieves.
“We’re very good at disguising what we do – it would be good if we could be a little more open about it. We put it behind hoardings or we bury it underground,” Blythe tells Kaplinsky.
Blythe also added that the industry also had a huge impact on future generations’ quality of life. “We’re at the forefront of dealing with climate change and getting the carbon emissions down,” he said.
And he expressed a particular concern about the high number of young people who embark on a construction apprenticeship and fail to complete it.
ITN Productions’ UK director of programming, Simon Shelley, said: “ITN Productions are delighted to be partnering with the Chartered Institute of Building examining the major themes affecting the sector and interviewing the industry’s key players. We’re excited to embark on this project to engage with and inform professionals from the industry.”
Building Tomorrow will be premiered at the CIOB conference in central London in November. The programme will then form part of an extensive online communications campaign which will draw in CIOB members, journalists, writers and bloggers.
Blythe said: “Construction has a number of great stories to tell and I hope we can shine a light on some of the important things the industry does. We want to reveal what construction management is all about and the difference it makes. It is fundamentally about great people and if we can make a career in the industry a positive first choice then so much the better.”
