The latest recruitment initiative aimed at tackling the construction skills shortage was launched this week, with the aim of filling an estimated 225,000 vacancies over the next five years.
The Go Construct website has been delivered by the CITB, which is funding the concept out of its levy income. The website also forms the “single careers portal” championed by the original Construction Leadership Council.
The careers information portal has been “designed in conjunction with partners from across the industry” with the aim of tackling “the root causes of the recruitment issues facing construction”.
According to the CITB, it will act as an online ‘one stop shop’ to educate people about what careers in the industry are really like, matching their skills and interests to career paths and allowing them to hear first hand from those who have built successful careers in construction.
The initiative also includes campaign adverts and site hoarding templates. It’s hoped that contractors and employers which back the project will adopt these graphics and images in their campaigns, to create a consistent “look” across the industry’s recruitment effort.
The CITB has signed up celebrity designer and former construction worker Wayne Hemingway, who has worked on housing developments such as Hillington Square and Staiths South Bank, to help promote the campaign.
Skills minister Nick Boles launched the campaign this week in Parliament, with a wider PR and marketing push set to kick off on 25 September.
The CITB has produced a set of marketing materials including “activity plans, myth busters, key facts and videos, to support teachers, career advisers and employers and to help enthuse people about the opportunities to build a career in the industry”.
Go Construct will also work with around 9,000 sites signed up to the Considerate Constructors Scheme across the country and the CITB is hoping for buy-in from construction’s major employers.
Steve Hindley, chairman of Midas Group, said: “Too often in the past, as an industry each of our sector silos have been in competition with each other for the talent we need. With the launch of Go Construct the whole industry will be speaking with one voice to attract the best and brightest talent to choose a career in construction instead of another sector.
“If we are to bridge the skills gaps we face and find the 224,000 additional people we need we must pull together and get behind Go Construct.”
Pat Boyle, managing director for construction at Morgan Sindall, has also backed the initiative. He said: “Too often have we seen sectors within the construction industry in competition for talent. What this industry really needs is to have one holistic voice to bring in the very best, people who choose a career in construction ahead of any other sector.
“If we are to bridge the impending skills gap and attract the more than 220,000 people we need, we must put our full support behind initiatives such as Go Construct.”
The website is at www.GoConstruct.org
