CITB chairman James Wates has called on employers to step up their activity in schools after a damning report revealed that careers advice on construction is largely unfavourable, outdated and ill-informed.
The Educating the Educators survey, carried out for CITB by Pye Tait Consulting, is based on more than 800 responses from a range of “careers influencers”, including school teachers responsible for careers advice, careers advisers and careers experts at 10 focus groups in England, Scotland and Wales.
More than a third of respondents (35%) rated the industry below five on a scale of one to 10 in terms of its attractiveness as a career opportunity, saying the profession “typically involves dirty hard work”.
The industry’s attractiveness reduced the further south respondents were in the country, even though London and the south east is where construction activity and job opportunities are typically more plentiful.
In addition, 44% of teachers admitted to having offered ill-informed careers advice to students, while more than 60% of careers advisers in schools offered no information on job prospects based on available work.
The report stated: “The views of careers advisers and influencers about construction are most often based on their knowledge of craft and trade roles. Traditional perceptions of the industry as hard work for low pay are common.”
Emma Bull from Willmott Dixon talking to students from St Telio’s High School in Cardiff. James Wates says the industry needs to do more in schools
Many careers advisers in England were desperate for more help from construction companies to provide information and materials, the report said, particularly in schools, which are already struggling with legal requirements to extend careers advice to both younger and older pupils.
James Wates commented: “Our industry has to compete with many others for future talent. That means that we must be in the thoughts and choices of pupils making decisions at school, not as they’re about to leave or have already left. We can’t leave this to existing careers advice because we need to reach teachers in order to reach pupils. Teachers need to be made aware of what training and careers construction has to offer their pupils in order to get our message across.”
He added: “I’m asking employers to be part of setting out our stall. I’d like to see 50 employers visit 50 schools in 2014 to do just this. That sends a powerful message about our industry and about the opportunities that exist within it.”
In response to the report’s findings, the CITB careers team is offering to help construction companies step up their engagement with schools and arrange events, talks, field trips, mentoring programmes or work experience with schools.
In addition, the organisation said it will step up support for the CITB Construction Ambassador Programmes to train industry role models to provide information on construction careers in schools. It will also join forces with supply chains, federations, training groups and professional institutions to support local careers events.
“But on its own this will not be enough,” a spokesman told CM. “Our hope is that employers will increasingly want to work with us to attract talent into our industry. They are ideally placed to inspire and recruit the next generation of apprentices by getting into schools and setting out the stall for teachers and pupils.”
