As part of the industry and government working in partnership to develop an industrial strategy for construction for 2025, several key commitments have been identified to encourage youth employment in the construction industry. These include:
- improving the image of the industry by inspiring young people including through a coordinated approach to health and safety and improving performance in the domestic repair and maintenance market
- Ensuring that industry and government work with skills bodies to ensure that capability and capacity issues in construction are addressed in a strategic manner.
This will be done by better determination of future capability needs; clear routes of entry and clear career progression pathways; a clear, standard means of recognising competence; exploring the scope to make apprenticeships more flexible; an industry review of the current skills and capability delivery mechanisms; review of approaches to career planning, training and development with a commitment to rationalise.
These initiatives support the existing work of the Construction Industry Council (CIC), working in partnership with the professional institutions, which is committed to fostering understanding of the sector amongst young people and their influencers. "A Professional Career in the Built environment” is a pan-professional careers pack supported by the professional bodies and employers to engage 11- to 18-year-olds. Since its launch in 2011, the pack has been distributed to 4,000 schools, colleges and careers guidance professionals, providing impartial and wide ranging advice on many of the study and career opportunities available in sector. It provides a one-stop gateway into the diverse professional disciplines across the built environment. A charity, the Construction Youth Trust, has also been using the CIC pack as part of their "Budding Brunels School Engagement Programme”, a national project working with over 50 schools across the UK, which has involved a mix of courses, outreach events and work placements.