Hard hat or graduation cap? In construction, we need both

Since Andy Burnham stepped through the door of Number 10 just a few weeks ago, he has wasted no time in making clear his views on education and skills for young people. With one million 16 to 24-year-olds out of work, the new prime minister wants to see a radical rebalancing of the education system away from a primary focus on university-geared grades, and towards good jobs.

This emphasis has been welcomed by industries across the board and reflects the reality of personal finances. Younger cohorts today are concerned about the high costs of university tuition and they are looking to get into work in future-proofed, secure careers.

In construction, we should be well placed to meet these expectations. We have a strong demand signal from government to invest, with a significant pipeline coming down the track in major programmes across defence, energy, water and transport. Together, they will require large numbers of enthusiastic new recruits bringing different thinking and new specialisms.

With a growing capacity shortage, the government’s shake-up of education and training cannot come soon enough

Yet traditional routes into the industry are struggling. We are already seeing some universities across the UK scaling back surveying courses due to a lack of student demand. With a growing capacity shortage, the government’s shake-up of education and training cannot come soon enough.

Making this reform work for businesses in our sector, for young people and for the wider economy will hinge on getting the right balance of pathways.

Going beyond the hard hats

Our starting point must be to define the capabilities we need for a modern construction sector. Keir Starmer’s government set these wheels in motion with the Construction Skills Mission Board. However, we need to get the pitch right if we are to attract talented workers into the industry.

Under the last government, the emphasis was on “brickies, sparkies and chippies”. Now it is “hard hats” pitted against “graduation caps”. We – in the industry and in government – need to do more to highlight the vast diversity of roles across the asset lifecycle, from helping to unlock funding for new roads and railways, to delivering first-of-a-kind assets in nuclear.

We also should not forget the many opportunities in between. Our degree apprenticeships, which offer both on-the-job learning and academic study and qualification, are increasingly popular among younger cohorts and important to our business’ talent mix. We now hire roughly one apprentice for every two graduates, compared with one for every four a decade ago.

Matching skills and demand more strategically

Careers outreach to schools and community networks is now commonplace, and extensive across major programmes and by individual businesses. However, these efforts will only get us so far: there is simply too much ground to cover across circa 6,000 secondary schools. There needs to be a push from the education system as well.

When the Modern Industrial Strategy was published in 2024, we recommended that the government set up a UCAS-style brokerage platform to help match skills with pathways in high-demand, growth-driving sectors. The framing around industrial capacity has shifted under the new leadership, yet we still see a lot of potential for this idea to support both the employment drive and reindustrialisation.

This system should be technology-first to best reach and engage young people, show them what jobs are really like day to day and connect them with employers.

This brokerage needs to happen at a regional level. This would play well to the prime minister’s focus on devolution and build on the thinking behind Burnham’s launch of the MBacc during his time as mayor of Greater Manchester. It would also give younger cohorts opportunities close to home.

The new prime minister clearly recognises that we need to think differently about training to improve quality of life and our economy

At the same time, we still need national coordination. This firmly sits with NISTA and its work to map skills and needs. Together, these two lenses, regional and national, can create the right balance between place-focused investment and creating a connected major programmes sector, capable of turning its hand to a fleet of new hospitals, or of small modular reactors.

The new prime minister clearly recognises that we need to think differently about training to improve quality of life and our economy. The challenge will be in accelerating these changes for construction to avoid a capacity crunch as major programmes mobilise in the next two years.

We must start by showing young people that there is a pathway to a successful career for them here whether they choose to wear a hard hat or a graduation cap. But the best thing is, in our world they can wear both.

Patricia Moore is managing director, EMEA, at Turner & Townsend