Training body launches TV ad campaign

A TV advertisement encouraging young people to enter the construction industry will be aired for the first time tonight (Monday) on Sky One during The Simpsons. The second appearance will be during Average Joe tomorrow night (Tuesday) on Channel 4.

The ad created for CITB-ConstructionSkills is aimed at 14-19 year-olds. They will appear until mid-September and be aired on TV stations such as MTV, E4, T4, ITV2 and Kerrang.

The first frame of the ad features a brick with the words “What do you see” underneath. A voiceover provided by Ian Kelsey – Emmerdale’s Dave Lover – then says: “If you only see a brick put the kettle on.”

The image of the brick is replaced by a series of iconic buildings filmed in a frantic cut and paste style familiar to viewers of MTV.

CITB-ConstructionSkills said that the TV ad is designed to break the stereotypes people have that the industry is just about bricklaying.

CITB-ConstructionSkills’s first ever TV ad will run alongside an online campaign and stills from the ad will appear on bus sides and in further education colleges. One million postcodes will also appear in cinemas across the UK including Northern Ireland.

The media initiatives are part of this year's Positive Image media and recruitment campaign. CEO of CITB Construction Skills Peter Lobban said that this year’s campaign was going to concentrate on recruiting “quality not just quantity”.

He said: “We want building brains not bums. We want to send out the message that you need to be good to get into construction.”

CITB said that research revealed that there had been a 25% increase in applications to construction courses this year and submissions for apprenticeship grants had increased by 30%.

Lobban said that the government had to fund more apprenticeships with sub-contractors to help provide the 400,000 extra skilled workers required in the next five years. He said: “We are only touching 25% of the industry. The other 75% does not have a training ethos”.

Lobban said that there needed to be a focus on self-employed builders and sub-contractors working further down the supply chain on major projects.

He said that as a public sector skills council the CITB-ConstructionSkills was trying to persuade the government to provide funds for subcontractors taking on apprenticeships.

CITB-ConstructionSkills said Positive Image campaign will be bolstered by the National Construction Week, which runs between the 6 and 13 October.