The year-on-year percentage increase wasn’t as large as the 13% improvement between 2019 – the last time exams were held – and 2020, but it will certainly continue the stampede to university.

This year, 44% of all 18-year-olds in England have applied for a university place, a 10% bump on last year.

The astonishing enthusiasm to head university and fall into an average of GBP£50,000 of debt to earn a degree (many of which have limited value to employers) is a sad reflection on the state of trade apprenticeships.

Basically 18-year-olds see more value in going to university and running up debt, than starting an apprenticeship, and earning money.

The construction sector is suffering from the explosive growth of university education. The skills shortage across the sector is well documented. Just last week, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) released figures showing there were 38,000 vacancies across the industry between May and July – a 20-year high.

More concerning for the industry perhaps was a recent YouGov survey that found just 3% of 18-to-24-year-olds were considering a career in construction.

Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet here. Turning the situation around takes time and requires a concerted effort from all parties in the sector – government bodies, large contractors and consultants, trade associations, small businesses and sole tradesmen.

According to Suzannah Nicol, chief executive of Build UK, there are 40,000 students taking construction related courses every year, but only 8,000 of those graduates are taken on.

As well as making more apprenticeships available, work needs to be done to make ‘the trades’ more attractive to the next generation, both male and female.

The sector has to understand it is competing for young talent, and to do that it needs a more visible presence on campuses and in schools. Build UK has been running Open Doors, an initiative to take teenagers on site visits, however, the programme is small and was disrupted by COVID.

It’s a start, but as Mark Millar of DIY SOS, argued on a recent addition of The Clive Holland Show, the industry needs to work alongside schools to change perceptions of the industry and showcase careers in construction.

Apprenticeship schemes also need to become more rewarding and better structured.

A lot of tradespeople assume its OK to pay apprentices minimum wage because that is what they experienced. But that approach doesn’t work when 18-to-24-year-olds have so many career opportunities, including going to university.

It’s not just about money, but also the quality of the apprenticeship. Taking on an apprentice particularly for a small firm is a huge commitment in terms of money and time. The quality of onsite training will largely depend on the patience and generosity of the mentor – some tradespeople will find that rewarding and others will hate it.

Trade associations are looking to fill the void, and help self-employed, grassroots tradespeople firstly find suitable candidates and secondly structure the apprentice experience – ideally in-line with educational offerings.

Speaking to Robin Clevett on the Carpentry Show, Steve Radley, policy directory, CITB discussed a recently launched scheme that enables small firms and sole tradespeople to share the responsibilities of developing apprentices. Currently, the programme is fairly small, with just 200 participating firms.

This follows work by the training board to expand its grant programme for apprentices by 30%. CITB grants throughout the two-year lifecycle of an apprenticeship can total as much as GBP£8,500.

But is that enough? Reliance on small firms and sole tradespeople to make a dent in the national skills shortage is unrealistic. To play their part, many tradespeople need support to develop their own teaching skills. Trade bodies, like the CITB will need to be much closer to small builders and grassroots tradespeople if it is to encourage them to get involved.

Major contractors and consultants are better positioned to assume the lion’s share of the training burden. The leading firms in the industry need to adopt a long-term approach with education and apprentice programmes that have tangible targets, if only to help fulfil their own future staffing requirements. 

Perhaps contractors, builders and solo tradespeople need to collectively reconsider the ‘traditional’ age they hire apprentices. Between 16-to-18-years-old many people (including those considering university) don’t know what they want to do. By 21-22 people are more capable of making an informed decision. More mature apprentices will probably cost more – but if they contribute more, is that a bad thing?

Going further, the industry needs to consider hiring apprentices who are embarking on a second career. Some organisations are already pushing ahead with this idea. For example, the Electrotechnical Certification Scheme recently made it easier to transfer electrical skills learned in the military to civilian life.

Bringing in more mature apprentices means the days of pranking the naive 16-year-old on site are numbered.

We can all do more to make a career in the ‘trades’ more appealing – that doesn’t mean allowing candidates to set their own salary as one recent report from a contractor suggested – but creating environment that is enjoyable and rewarding.