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Why the construction industry needs to take an Open Doors approach

  • 17 Apr 2023
  • by
  • Charlene Sargeant and Clare Scott
Last month, Lendlease took part in Open Doors 2023, the week-long event allowed anyone interested in construction to visit one of 240 construction sites across the UK for free. The aim of the week is simple, to inspire more people to go beyond the hoardings and explore the diverse, exciting and impactful careers that you can have working in industry.

Members of the public were able to visit Lendlease’s exceptional sites 2 Aldermanbury Square in the City of London, 90 Long Acre near Covent Garden and Google, Kings Cross in Camden.

At Lendlease, we know the construction industry can offer people of all different ages and backgrounds exciting careers. But for potential job candidates, young people and people returning to work our industry can be quite opaque.

This is something we need to address fast, the skills gap in the construction industry is widening with 75% of contractors having issues recruiting skilled operatives.* The figures are even worse when we take into consideration net zero skills, supply chain firms found 96% of firms were affected by skilled labour shortages that impacted their ability to progress work towards net zero.

So, if we’re going to plug the skills gap and help people find meaningful and skilled work, we as an industry have to get better at signposting career pathways into construction.

If you’re considering a career in construction but don’t know where to start, here are a few resources that you can access for free:

  • Go Constructis a construction careers website where you can find out more about the wide variety of roles in the industry, the qualifications you need to do those roles and case studies on what it’s really like to do that job. They also have a Career Explorer tool which will help you sort through construction careers and find ones that may suit you based on your interests and education level. 
  • Routes of Entry into Constructionis a guide that was published by Build UK and sets out the most common routes into construction for young people in England. This includes school leavers, people looking for apprenticeships and T-Levels to people with degrees and higher education qualifications.  
  • The Talentview Constructionwebsite is also helpful for when you’re looking for your first role in construction. It has listings for work experience sessions, taster days and much more.