Has there ever been a better time to be in construction?

As the Constructing Excellence National Convention and Awards draw nearer on the 14thNovember, the final quarter of the year can be a time of reflection.

Has there ever been a better time to be in construction?

When I entered the construction industry in 2009, it was a major contrast from my time working placements in just the three years before. Beleaguered, depressed and pessimistic, things were bad and everyone was taking an emotional and financial battering in the face of job losses and difficult trading conditions.  Indeed, I was lucky to have a job and in the years that followed over half of those who had been on my quantity surveying course had left the industry altogether, taking training or employment in other sectors.

But you might forgive me for feeling somewhat more buoyant about life now.  Yes, the global and UK economy still face massive challenges and no, we aren’t out of the woods yet but there does seem to be a renewed optimism in the industry with widespread reports of increased and growing demand.

Indeed, there is now widely reported difficulty in finding enough talented and skilled people to fulfil orders! And this is just one reason why there is a long overdue and renewed drive at improving both the diversity of our industry and the image that it portrays to wider society.  Not to mention the intelligent use of data and how we all deliver more efficiently and develop as individuals.

With a growing market and many exciting initiatives underway in numerous organisations across all disciplines in industry spanning: BIM, diversity, sustainability, image, data (to name but a few) , it feels like great time to be in construction.

I hope that many early-career-people will make the choice to come and join this industry, which due to major initiatives (some cited above) being driven by a variety of organisations and government, is on the brink of change so dramatic that it will border on revolutionary.

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Author: G4C

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