Clive Holland, host of The Clive Holland Show chatted to Daisie Rees-Evans, policy development manager at CIOB and Dean Saxton, director at D Saxton Building Solutions about the industry's public relations (PR) problem and how it can be fixed.

Rees-Evans said: “We actually recently published the ‘Real Face of Construction’ which is more of an economic report that highlights the real value that construction brings to the UK economy. From that we really wanted to understand whether these skills that we are finding, struggling to recruit people, what is the public perception when it comes to the construction industry. So, we surveyed 2,000 UK people and these are people that don’t necessarily work in the industry. We asked them what they think the construction industry is and what their perceptions are and surprisingly, so many people have these misconceptions that are quite outdated like low paying jobs in the construction industry, jobs being overly physical and dangerous. But that’s completely not the case when it comes to the construction industry. We have got loads of roles that people can go into and construction industry employees are paid highly compared to other industries like £3,000 more. So, this idea that the industry is lowly paid is completely false.

“We need to start to talk to more young people and engaging their parents as well because if it is the older generation that has the misconception about the construction industry, they are not going to recommend a construction career because they have these misconceptions. So, we need to inspire the younger generation and let them know that there are loads of opportunities in the industry. For example you can work in digital using really cool drones to look at sites or you can start to look at sustainability, how can we leave legacy for the next generation. “Tapping into that for the younger people and also saying to the adults that there is a big career here for young people to get into and is not what you think will help to improve the negative misconceptions about the industry.”

Saxton added: “I think the industry has completely changed even the days when I used to go to work with dad, you were looked at as the ‘big fat’ builder. So in that way I think it’s completely changed to what it is now. Even the misconceptions that it is heavy handed, overly physical and dangerous, that has also withered down as well. I just don’t see it as a dangerous place myself and I wouldn’t change my job for the world.

Asked about how the industry can continue to attract young people and new recruits, Saxton explained: “I think it’s really important to educate the educator. Obviously at some point we are going to have younger teachers come in and that will help and contribute to changing misconceptions and attitudes about our industry. We need to get more of us trades getting into schools to give more talks and showcase what we do and explaining that it’s not a dangerous bad job to get into and start a career after school. Even if it’s a small handful of young people that we showcase to that’s a good starting point.”