Ask not what others can do for you...

The diplomas, which will eventually replace GCSEs and A-levels, will give youngsters a taster of a particular industry sector together with workplace skills – as well as some more traditional learning such as maths and English.

People traditionally find their way into construction because of family connections or because they stumble across it by chance.

So logically, if more young people hear about it earlier, more will be tempted to consider it as a career.

All well and good. But the diploma does require industry input both to provide work experience and to get children interested before they make their choices at 13.

Who is prepared to put in the time and effort? If the situation with apprentices is anything to go by, there will be few volunteers. The number of firms taking on apprentices is falling; down 26% to 7,000 this year. The burden of paperwork is just too much for many small firms. But what about the larger ones? Main contractors could employ apprentices and put them to work with suppliers if they wanted to. Few do.

And in middle management, the industry is struggling to find staff. It’s all your fault for failing to invest in training and development, argues columnist Aaron Morby.

At the top end of the market, there are those companies that get involved with training and education – it’s good for the image. And there are many SMEs doing great things with schools, apprentices and training their workforce.

To everyone else, I say: stop moaning about the industry’s image problem and the lack of good people. Stop relying on others. And do your bit.