Promoted content: opportunities in the built environment sector

Specialist engineering recruitment agency Spencer Ogden examines why it's a good time to consider a career in the built environment sector

Built environment is a sector that continues to attract more headlines. Like most technical disciplines, built environment is fighting for its share of the talent pool across the globe. Today, employers are finding it increasingly difficult to fill skilled roles due to a lack of available talent, across all construction platforms. It is a crisis that is putting additional strain on the industry’s supply chain and causing many disruptions to building firms, which is further increasing costs and causing project delays. The skills gap has become so large that it is now impossible for it to be immediately resolved by one party or sector alone as it will require a collaborative effort.

Finding concrete solutions

Many officials believe the sector is still recovering from the recession which occurred in 2008. According to David Picton, chief sustainability officer at Carillion, one of the UK’s biggest construction and facilities management groups, there are several reasons why the recession has had an enormous effect on the industry.  “In a recession, construction is always the last industry to slow down and the last to pick up,” says Mr Picton. “Workers left the industry and, at the same time, young people were not inspired to join to replace them.” Overtime many workers chose other professions due to the lack of perceivable career prospects across the field. Apprenticeships have always been an effective means of attracting fresh employees and provide many cost reducing benefits for employers, however, this is not the only strategy that can solve the current skills shortage crisis.