Construction Showcase launch

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Construction Showcase Exhibition here at Skills for London.

I am delighted that you are here with us this afternoon for this special event. I do hope that you’ve all had the chance to walk around the Exhibition and meet with our experts and the young people who are here - trying their hand at some of the sample sessions that we have set up for them.

Before I start, I would like to say one thing to the young people that are here with us now – ours is a great industry. I have been involved in construction for many years now and I really would recommend it to you. Ours is a great industry with plenty of opportunities and there really is something for everyone! I do hope you enjoy these have a go sessions. Do get involved, be creative and find out whether a career in construction is right for you.

We have produced a showcase of construction careers here today to officially launch our new scheme. Aptly perhaps, we have called this Construction Showcase. It is a direct replacement for National Construction Week and offers a fresh new approach to what has always been a popular initiative. The difference with Construction Showcase however, is that it encourages employers to actively engage with young people all year round – and not just during one week in October.

By employers – like those that are here for this exhibition – engaging with young people, we will be able to tell them about the opportunities that are available in our industry, and the range of careers that they can train for.

Construction is most certainly not a dead end job. Our industry is the most exciting there is, and the opportunities are boundless. Often I meet with employers who tell me that they started off their career as a Joiner, or a brick layer, and just 10 years later they run a fine construction company. That is real progress.

It has never been more important for us to do this and to act as ambassadors. We have some challenging times ahead, and we all know about the economic downturn that has affected our industry - but in four years, the eyes of the world will be upon us as we deliver a number of iconic and unique projects. The Olympics is just the tip of the iceberg. Even during this economic downturn, Government spending remains strong and there are still a number of exciting projects in the pipeline. This means that we need to find 42,000 brand new recruits every single year for the next four years.

That is an awful lot of people.  We need to continue to raise our game and attract more and more young people to our industry – so that we have a bright and diverse pool of recruits ready to step in and help us to deliver these exciting projects.

Construction Showcase is just one of the ways that we are doing this. As employers, I ask you to get out there and engage with young people so that we can tell them what a great career construction is and get them thinking about the jobs that they would like to do in our industry.

Finally, I want to draw your attention to the graphics that we have used in this exhibition. That is – the “I was here” graphic. I am delighted that we have used this image at this event – because it shows pictorially something that I always say. Construction is not just a job. It is a really vital and rewarding career that leaves a lasting legacy for communities and future generations. Long after our passing, the buildings that we create will be here as a testament to our skills, creativity and passion.

One day, the young people who have been to a Construction Showcase event and decided, as a result to train for a career in construction, will be able to take their grandchildren to a building and say, “I built that…I was here”.  Not many people have the benefit of being able to do that – and that is what makes this industry and these careers special.