Contractors opening up their sites to potential young recruits in the inaugural Open Doors weekend on 9-10 November are gearing up for a marketing campaign in October.
The 23 contractors opening up 75 sites across the UK will be contacting local schools and colleges close to the projects, and targeting local papers and websites.
Sites taking part in the programme include the Tate Modern extension by Mace, Skanska’s Brent Civic Centre in north London, Leeds Arena by BAM and Carillion’s Southmead Hospital in Bristol.
The sites’ capacity for visitors varies, but some high-profile sites in London are nearly fully booked, while many others are already 50% booked.
Open Doors hopes to make construction more visible and accessible for a generation of school students who have reduced access to careers advice following government cuts, including the downsizing of the Connexions youth service.
It is being organised by the UK Contractors Group, the CIOB, CITB-ConstructionSkills and the Considerate Constructors Scheme.
One participant, Costain, hopes to use the event to capture the contact details of “hundreds” of young people visiting its three Open Doors sites, and will follow up with targeted communications.
Costain training manager Jon Spencer, who also chairs the UK Contractors Group training committee, said: “We want to grow talent – especially the frontline supervisors of the future – from an apprenticeship level, and to achieve that we need to engage with schools and young people more.
“Often people just need the right opportunity and excuse to engage [with construction] – from my experience in the past schools are often extremely enthusiastic.”
A spokeswoman for CITB-ConstructionSkills commented: “It’s primarily a recruitment drive to get better talent into the industry, and to say that we’re open to everyone, not just the same people. But we also want to reach the general public and all the influencers, to show them modern sites and to tackle the stereotypes.
“It also coincides with the various campaigns focusing on the role of construction in the economy, and it’s also a way for the construction community to come together.”
The four groups behind the scheme hope that Open Doors will become a regular event. At the launch in March, CIOB chief executive Chris Blythe said: “This is a fantastic initiative to re-engage the industry with the public. By lifting the lid on what actually happens in modern construction there is a fnatastic opportunity to attract potential talent from outside the industry. Construction needn’t be shy about what it does – it should shout about it.”
Mace’s Tate Modern extension and Carillion’s Southmead Hospital are opening their doors
