With the construction industry short of almost a quarter of a million construction workers if the UK is to meet its 2027 building targets, according to the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), the race is on to encourage more young people to consider careers in the industry.
As well as a need to recruit the ‘missing’ 225,000-strong workforce, speeding up construction methods will also have an impact on the number of boots required on the ground, says insulation specialist ACTIS.
Its UK and Ireland sales director Mark Cooper says the company is operating a ‘pincer movement’ to address both ends of the skills gap dilemma. On the recruitment side, members of the Actis team are going out and sharing the joy of working in construction with young people at schools and colleges across the UK.
On the ‘speedier construction’ side of the skills gap fence, Actis is addressing this by designing materials which make part of the construction process quicker.
The speed and ease of installation of the Actis Hybrid range and its new Eolis HC have been much praised by builders and specifiers. In some cases it can take half the time of using a solid alternative, meaning that ‘spare’ time can be spent doing other, more complex, activities. Added to this, the products are popular with timber framers whose homes, in turn, can be built up to 30 per cent more quickly than traditional brick and block.
