Building Plymouth: 4th Building Summit Update

Building Plymouth: 4th Building Summit Update

Back in March we signed up as sponsors of Building Plymouth, a Council led partnership with local construction and built environment stakeholders’ that aims to link local people with jobs and apprenticeships, training and career opportunities.

Since then, we have supported Emma Hewitt (the Building Plymouth skills coordinator) and the other sponsors and stakeholders in promoting Building Plymouth across the construction industry network, as well as attending events and providing ideas on how to engage with the wider community to showcase the benefits of construction as a career of choice.

building plymouth david bayliss

Building Plymouth hosted its 4th Building summit on Tuesday 18th October at the Future Inn Plymouth. Stride Treglown was asked to close the summit with a message from a professional consultancy point of view, in which David Bayliss, Divisional Director (pictured above), represented the company and provided the following key messages:

  • For us it is important to remember that Building Plymouth covers the breadth of construction and the built environment – our sponsorship aims to highlight the interest from the professional end of the sector, to show that Building Plymouth is not just about focusing on the trades and those who the contractors employ.
  • With the booming construction pipeline in the SW region we know that 60% of the new jobs created in our sector over the next 5 years will be senior, professional, technical and office based roles. We are already experiencing serious issues recruiting into roles such as quantity surveyors, estimators and site managers.
  • We keep hearing that the biggest issue in terms of productivity and growth within our sector is a lack of skills. You therefore ask yourself if we are providing the right education, advice and access into our industry. It is incumbent upon all of us to help ensure this is the case in the future.
  • To respond to the skills gaps and shortages, it’s really important for employers in our city to actively engage with this partnership. To help inform the educators about the industry skills needed now and in the future; to input into the development of new training provision such as higher level and technical apprenticeships, and to actively engage with schools and young people, as well as adult career changers such as military leavers’, to reposition our sector as a career of choice.

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