The best careers no one knows about

At university my dissertation focused on understanding whether the perception of the roles available in construction deterred young people from pursuing careers within it. What my research concluded was that it was not a perception issue, it was an awareness one. Young people were simply not aware of the highly skilled and well-paid roles that are available in the built environment sector. Nearly 20 years later, after recently going back to my school to hold mock interviews with Year 11 students, none of whom identified the built environment as a career option for them, it doesn’t feel like a lot has changed.

So what can we each do as people working in the sector to raise awareness to ensure there is a sustainable level of talent coming into the industry? The answer to me is for all of us to take the time to shout about how great our industry is, and how rewarding the careers in it are, to as many young people as we can possibly engage.

We are currently reviewing our Social Value Policy and a key part of our emerging policy is a commitment “To Inspire Young People” as well as to have a positive impact on the environment. As well as my old school, my colleagues at Identity Consult have attended various events at schools in Greater Manchester to try to do exactly this.

We have also been part of some great joint initiatives with other businesses in our sector to arrange “School Construction Days” where over 150 children attend an all-day event at a local University. The day is broken into a series of workshops, each one aimed at raising awareness of a different role involved in delivering the buildings and infrastructure all around us.

And it is this partnership working between companies of different disciplines that is the key for me. As one representative of the industry at a careers day, we can get lost in the crowd of major local employers. But together, we can have more of an impact, help make our sector more visible, and help people understand the wide range of roles available in the built environment, and the wide range of skills needed for each of these roles.

Career Advisors in schools can’t be expected to know about every sector that is out there, let alone the different disciplines within each sector. The onus is therefore on us to do this.

And this genuinely is one of the most rewarding careers you can have. What other jobs give you the opportunity to build much needed new affordable homes in the village you went to school in? Or to re-build the cinema that you used to go to when you were growing up? Or to convert the school that your dad went to into a community venue? These are all opportunities that I have had in my career.

It is also a career where young people can genuinely have a major impact on the sustainability of our planet, something which most of those that we have spoken to, is a real area of interest for them, but they will only know about the impact they can have if we tell them.

If we are really to address the current skills shortage, we need young people to be choosing careers in the built environment, not just stumbling into like so many of us do. And the only way this will happen is if those currently in the industry work together to spread as much awareness as we can.