Industry is missing out by failing to hire women and ethnic minorities

The solution to the construction industry’s skills shortage is to recruit more women and ethnic minorities, a new report has argued. It called for efforts to attract both groups to be stepped up and warned that the industry should beware of depending on migrant workers.

The research from RLF, the construction and property consultants, found that women make up 9% of the construction workforce, but only 1% of its manual workforce and 30% of non-manual employment.

Only 2.8% of the construction workforce comes from ethnic minorities, compared to 6.9% of the total working population.

The surveying and architectural professions were the most popular areas of the industry among women graduates, according to the report. However, “there is huge fallout after women have children… in general the profession is not friendly to women and does not actively support women with families”.

RLF called for research to be carried out into why people from ethnic minorities are “disinterested in construction as a viable career option” and said the industry was “guilty of neglecting to market construction as a (career) option to 50% of the population”. It said women should be targeted proactively at all stages of their education.

The report also warned that the UK should be cautious in its reliance on workers from overseas. It said that when Spain joined the EU it was seen as a source of skilled labour that would be attracted to work in the UK. But the anticipated influx did not occur because access to the EU brought new opportunities within Spain itself.

RLF called on education leaders, the government and companies to kick off a recruitment drive focusing on women and ethnic minorities.

In doing so they should cooperate with each other, the firm said.

Smaller construction companies should be drawn into the campaign by an incentivised apprenticeship scheme.

Bigger firms should be the upholders of standards, employing only qualified workers and supporting local education and careers initiatives.

The report, entitled Business Briefing Paper - “Small Steps: Tackling the UK Construction Skills Crisis” is available from RLF.