The Duke of Gloucester Young Achievers Awards 2014 will include two new categories intended to attract a broader spectrum of onsite and design-based construction talent.
The Construction Youth Trust has issued a call for entries for the awards, now in their third year, which aim to acknowledge young people under the age of 30 who have achieved excellence in their careers so far and overcome challenges to get there.
The Construction Delivery category has been introduced to differentiate actual delivery on site from more consultancy-based talent entered into the Project Management category and will recognise youngsters in roles such as site manager, site assistant, health & safety adviser, construction foreman or construction supervisor.
The Design category meanwhile, replaces Architecture in a move to encompass anyone working with design in construction doing jobs such as design assistant, BIM assistant, urban designer, plus landscape architect or architectural technologist. The Engineering, Project Management and Surveying categories remain the same.
Built asset consultancy EC Harris joins this year as a sponsor, alongside existing headline sponsor CITB, overall winner sponsor KPMG, and fellow category sponsors Aecom, Byrne Group, and John Rowan & Partners. Sponsors commit to providing each winner with a one-year mentoring programme designed to improve their skills and experience.
The 30 shortlisted candidates from this year’s awards, announced in March, will become ambassadors for the CYT, visiting colleges and schools across the UK to encourage more youngsters into construction.
The Trust is also planning to make a film with the ambassadors to promote the awards, which is expected to focus on encouraging more women into the sector.
In the 2013 awards scheme, three out of the four categories were won by women, with three women also highly commended.
Applicants for the 2014 awards can submit their entries online via the CYT website www.constructionyouth.org.uk/awards. Entries should include a write-up from a manager or line manager outlining why they are putting their colleague forward. The deadline for entries is November 8, with judging taking place in January and winners announced in the spring.
Finalists will be judged by a panel of experts through a rigorous process of presentations and interviews. Judges will be looking in particular for young people who have gone the extra mile to promote construction as a career or helped others in the wider community.
