07 October 2024
Pushing on an Open Door to get more people into construction
If you know me, you know I love construction and you’ll also know that bringing through the next generation in our industry is my passion.
We need 50,000 new recruits in the sector every year to keep up with demand.
At D-Drill & Sawing, we have made it our mission to bring through apprentices at our branches across the country and we are always looking to recruit.
It’s vital that the whole industry plays its part and that is why Build UK’s Open Doors event is such an important marker in the calendar for me.
Open Doors 2025 will run from March 17 through to March 22 and, as chair of Build UK, I will spend the next few months encouraging fellow business owners – from SMEs through to the biggest companies in our sector – to open uptheir sites and offices to take part in the event.
We’ve just opened registration for events and already there has been huge support from the whole industry and this will continue to build over the coming weeks and months.
Ultimately, it is an opportunity to show the public – particularly young people at school and colleges – what a fantastic career construction can provide. There really is something for everyone.
Not only that, we can help to educate the educators about the industry too. The more teachers, tutors and careers advisers who understand the opportunities available in construction and the incredibly rewarding jobs it provides, the more likely that message will get through over and above our week of activity.
At Open Doors 2024, I spent an afternoon at the Drilling & Sawing Association’s training centre in Nottingham and watched as a group of teenagers tried their hands at drilling a concrete core and then had a go on a remote-controlled demolition tool that is used in the demolition of buildings.
They loved it. The careers adviser who accompanied them said to me afterwards: “I didn’t even know these jobs existed!”
So, that’s the challenge: to ensure that more people are aware of what we do by the time we get to the end of March 2025, than did before. And, not just be aware, but to start to share the same passion that we all have for the industry.
For now, please register your site or place of work for an event and then start to spread the word about Open Doors 2025.
For more information click here.
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