There remains a key role for a central body, building on CITB's current work, to have an influence beyond smarter grant funding for skills and innovation. This could encompass:
• Driving a major outreach programme into schools at 11+ level, embedding the likes of Design - Engineer - Construct (DEC) curriculum options into chosen schools that position the digital agenda in a built environment context. There is good work in progress here through the Go-Construct initiative, and through the development of career pathways announced in the recent Skills Plan, but this needs to be sustained and extended.
• Look to create a holistic marketing and messaging campaign that embraces 'Built Environment' not just 'Construction' It should bring in all ancillary professions and trades and link better the idea of physical assets created to excitement of being involved. This needs to move beyond major projects and engineering infrastructure and illustrate how the apparently mundane is exciting in construction process.
• Avoid use of stereotypes in how the industry is presented - for example a bricklayer with a trowel, an architect's blueprint, etc. There needs to be a more balanced approach to go hand in hand with a modernisation agenda.
In many ways, and going back to the chain reaction analogy used for these recommendations, the industry's image is a by-product of addressing all the other factors highlighted in this review. The task of attracting motivated and appropriate new entrants into the industry will be very much easier if we have modernised its basic delivery model.
Recommendation 6: A reformed CITB or stand-alone body should be challenged and empowered to deliver a more powerful public facing story and image for the holistic 'built environment' process, of which construction forms part. This responsibility should include an outreach programme to schools and should draw on existing industry exemplars and the vision for the industry's future state rather than just 'business as usual'. |