It is certainly true, as Georgia Elliott-Smith points out (Sitelife supplement, October 2003), that construction is a lot younger and more dynamic than people think – or at least it should be.
The construction industry claims it is struggling to find the right quantity and quality of graduate, yet graduates are often bemused by the opportunities open to them. This has prompted many to seek alternative career paths after having trained for up to five years for. This is ludicrous. Fundamentally, there is a gap between what the top graduates want and what the industry has to offer them. Future leaders are graduating from university courses every year, but not enough companies are prepared to offer the career progression that they seek.

At the official launch of Generation for Collaboration last week, with Sir Michael Latham as our principal guest, the guest list was made up largely of young industry professionals who had all come along with senior representatives of their companies in a bid to increase the dialogue between "experience" and "new ideas".

Academia recognises that it also has a role to play and is doing its best to improve. The industry and its professional institutions now need to fulfil their side of the bargain. While there may be room for improving the current offering of university construction courses, a number of universities are leading key R&D initiatives that will help to improve the performance of the industry. It is important that the industry supports these initiatives in return.

It is disappointing that the editor of the industry's leading journal disagrees with Elliott-Smith's positive outlook (3 October leader, page 3). This pessimistic view is exactly why the industry doesn't attract the right calibre of individual. Success breeds success, and we need to start celebrating our successes rather than giving in to the doom-mongers.

Postscript

Duncan McIndoe, Turner & Townsend Group, chairman of G4C, via email.