Careers in Construction: Action Plan

The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science’s (DFHERIS) mission statement is to develop Ireland’s further and higher education and research systems to support people in reaching their full potential and to create value, prosperity, resilience and a cohesive, sustainable and vibrant society. As part of that mission the department is responsible for delivering several actions under Housing for All (HfA).

Under the 2022 renewed Housing for All, action 13.4: “Develop an action plan to promote careers in construction” was deemed a priority action and assigned to DFHERIS. The department established a Working Group (WG) with members invited to take part based on their individual experience and knowledge of the construction sector and the education sector. (See Appendices I and II for the Terms of Reference and for Group membership.)

The Report on the Analysis of Skills for Residential Construction & Retrofitting 2023–2030 identifies the construction skills needs from the tertiary sector in order to meet housing and retrofitting targets outlined in HfA and the National Retrofit Plan.

To deliver the government’s targets in housing and domestic retrofitting and to continue to engage in general residential repair and maintenance work, it is estimated that 50,831 new entrants will have to be recruited in managerial, professional, skilled, and semi-skilled occupations over the period 2023-2030. These new entrants may be a combination of workers currently employed in the industry who are seeking to upskill, or jobseekers who wish to pursue a career in building or retrofitting.

The Report notes that:

Providing a sufficient number of new entrants in the craft skills poses the most serious challenge. This is because the requirement – at just over 30,000 new entrants - is much greater than the requirement for the other skills, and the combination of the pandemic and low growth in new housing prior to 2018, has had an adverse impact on the numbers of apprentices registering, and qualifying as craft workers. The Report estimates a shortfall across different occupations, as shown in detail in the following tables extracted from the Report.

Table 1A: Demand and supply for professionally qualified workers 2023-2025

• Source: DFHERIS and report author’s own estimates.

Table 2A: Demand and supply of craft workers; 2023-2025

• Source: DFHERIS and author of the report’s own estimates.

In short, the Report highlights the need for the construction industry to recruit and retain a higher number of workers than is currently provided for through education, apprenticeship and current retention levels.

This is of particular importance in responding to the government’s goals in HfA and the Climate Action Plan including in relation to retrofitting, Near Zero Energy Buildings and Modern Methods of Construction.

This was the context in which the WG was established.

Working Group

Under the agreed terms of reference, the Working had a clear remit to report to the Industry Capability Group at the end of quarter two of 2023 with proposed actions. The WG agreed a timeline and work plan on that basis, following its first meeting in November 2022.

Members shared how their organisations were currently promoting the construction industry and outlined the barriers to the sector as they saw them. The Group produced a report outlining this provision and sharing all of their outreach programs, noting where the gaps in promotion may be, and the barriers its members felt impeded careers in construction.

Through the report, the WG identified several cohorts they needed to talk further to:

• second-level students
• current and former workers in the sector
• parents and guidance counsellors
• unemployed workers

The Working Group decided it needed to know:

• what would attract new entrants into the sector?
• how can those who have left the construction industry be encouraged to return?
• how can parents’ views be changed so that they see the opportunities in construction?
• what barriers could be addressed to help under-represented adults access and remain in the sector?

Through the RIAI , the Group explored the best means of research and members decided to commission qualitative and quantitative research in order to better understand these cohorts and form evidence-based actions. Following an expressions of interest process, in which over ten companies were invited to tender for the two separate pieces of research, Accuracy was chosen as the successful bidder for both projects.

Focus Groups Findings

Accuracy met with the WG to design the focus groups, including the questions that would be asked during these sessions. They proposed seven separate focus groups:

• second-level students
• teachers and guidance counsellors
• parents (of second level students in senior cycle)
• construction employers
• current workers in the sector
• former workers in the sector
• unemployed workers

Accuracy facilitated two workshops in person (with second-level students and unemployed workers) and the remaining five took place virtually to maximise participation.

All of the focus groups took place between 12-19 April 2023.

Accuracy observe that in examining the views of the diverse range of audiences, it is helpful to categorise respondents into two broad groups: students and influencers; and employers and workers.

In short, employers and workers have considerable experience of working in the industry while students and gatekeepers often have no direct experience of working in the sector.

Accuracy found that the barriers to careers in construction can be split in to structural and perceptual barriers. The students and influencers group had a low level of understanding of the construction sector. In general, these respondents, despite promotional efforts, have a narrow image of the construction industry as merely “on-site” work.

Parents are worried about the financial uncertainty, career stagnation and physical burnout of construction careers. In some cases, students are actively discouraged from pursuing roles in the sector. Guidance counsellors, though open to information, are still geared towards the academic education and training system.

Structurally there is limited exposure to the industry at second-level. Particularly in girls’ schools there is a deficit in the provision of technical subjects or modules conducive to following a pathway to a career in construction. This is exacerbated by a lack of ‘visible’ role models. Representation, including visits to construction sites, could go a long way to address the gender stereotyping and prevalent fear amongst this cohort that construction is an inappropriate industry for women. As Accuracy notes, they need to see it to believe it.

Gender is also a structural issue for workers and employers. Parenthood affects staff retention and there is a lack of flexibility and understanding from the industry to the needs of new parents. The industry needs to do more for women, with womens’ careers noted as being most affected by parenthood.

It must be noted that the focus group report shows a pervasive issue in the sector in providing equitable and inclusive options to women whether they have experience of working in the industry or not.

In terms of retention, employers perceive it as both difficult to attract and retain Irish apprentices and workers. Workers feel there is a practice of underpricing public works which puts pressure on workers to get more done for less. Workers do not return to the industry because they are paid better elsewhere, often for similar/adjacent roles.

For the unemployed, potential workers are inhibited from working in the sector due to the fact that they would have to forego jobseeker’s benefit to become “construction ready”. Employers have a negative impression of unemployed persons given current employment rates. As a result, they overlook a potential cohort of workers.

The report suggests several opportunities to reposition the industry, such as addressing the attitudes of employers towards the unemployed or engaging the unemployed sector in the right way. The actions agreed by the Group follow and are informed by these suggestions. There are three categories of actions:

• structural, to address the changes needed in education and industry;
• promotional, to reduce the perceptual deficit from the “narrow lens of on-site” to the opportunities that *exist through modern methods of construction and other advances in the sector; and
• training and upskilling options to address gender issues in the industry

A complete report is available to read in Appendix III.

Survey Findings

All surveys were conducted between 28 April and 19 May. Accuracy engaged over 1,000 respondents (including the key groups of: parents, young people, women) and supplemented the general survey with specifically tailored surveys for cohorts of 268 Transition Year, 5th year and 6th year students and 198 construction employers. They targeted three separate audiences.

Each survey addressed a number of key themes:

• benchmark key barriers to entering the industry
• benchmark attitudes to the construction sector as an attractive career option
• measure key barriers to remaining in the industry
• ascertain what would attract new entrants into the sector

The three main issues which arose through the surveys were gender, the perceptual gap, and retention/recruitment. The quantitative research reinforces the data from the qualitative research.

Gender

As evidenced in the focus groups, notable differences emerged between women and men regarding attitudes to the construction sector:

• notably more women (73%) than men (57%) acknowledge an issue with female access to construction apprenticeships at second-level
• gender differences were evident in the student survey, with only 18% of girls reporting a good understanding of the construction apprenticeship compared with 42% for boys
• the low level of understanding of the industry amongst girls impacts their career decision making with only 24% positive about pursuing a career in the construction sector compared to 49% of boys
• parents of senior cycle students overestimate their understanding of the sector and many incorrectly hold the view that girls are afforded the same access opportunities

Perception

• parents (76%) and senior cycle students (54%) continue to view apprenticeships as more suitable to less academic school leavers
• parents and students continue to associate the industry with on-site work while a majority of parents (76%) see a career in the sector as a financially unstable option
• 76% of parents see working in the industry as a more suitable environment for men while 70% hold the view that it is unsuitable work for people as they get older, from the age of 50-60 and upwards

Retention

Employers recognise that the sector has an issue with attracting and retaining staff. They view the key barriers to attracting new workers to be a lack of promotion in schools, disinterest, job insecurity and an unwillingness to work hard.

Problems with staff retention are viewed to be a result of other industries paying more and job insecurity. However many employers have not engaged with the ETBs (63%) and Intreo (81%) in the last 24 months regarding staff recruitment.

The complete report is available to read in Appendix IV.

Drawing on the results of the research, the Working Group agreed a number of actions to be delivered to help promote careers in construction. These are set out in the Table of Actions below. They draw on much existing work and develop it further in light of the research findings.

Development work is ongoing to progress the plans announced by Minster Foley to redevelop senior cycle: to ensure that a redeveloped senior cycle curriculum supports different forms of learning; removes barriers between existing Leaving Certificate programmes; and offers flexible progression routes from school into education and training settings, and work.

As these plans are progressed, it will be important to ensure that the arrangements for transition from post-primary education are reflective of and responsive to a redeveloped senior cycle.

By way of further context, it is important to note that there is substantial medium-term State commitment to infrastructure investment.

This is through ‘Housing for All’, which has a budget with in excess of €20 billion in funding through the Exchequer, the Land Development Agency (LDA) and the Housing Finance Agency over the next five years, and also the National Development Plan which is our largest, greenest and most ambitious infrastructure plan to date.

Over the lifetime of this NDP which extends out to 2030, we will be investing €165 billion in new and upgraded infrastructure that will meet the needs of our growing population.

This year alone over €12 billion will be invested from the Exchequer in vital infrastructure projects. At 5% of GNI*, our NDP investment is well above the recent EU average of 3% of national income. This represents a solid pipeline of activity that will have a transformative impact on employment opportunities, economic development and regional growth to support our growing population through the provision of new homes, schools, roads and hospitals.

With the unprecedented scale of investment in the NDP, the ambition of the government is clear. However, this government is firmly committed to ensuring that the level of investment is maintained and moreover ensuring the continued and timely delivery of NDP projects and programmes.

The continuing development and implementation of the NDP will also help improve quality of life and maintain economic growth through investment in ongoing and pipeline projects.

It will be important to highlight the NDP through the promotional actions. Linked to this is the need to highlight the changing nature of work in the sector. This is particularly the case with MMC developments. New skills will be required and become relevant to the sector, which will open up a range of non-traditional and emerging opportunities to greater numbers.

The gender focus is required to be an important element of actions. The findings amongst students in particular highlights this. Recent data on gender breakdown across construction-related work and skills shows the disparity which exists, and why it is so important to drive actions at addressing this.

Table 3A: Employment in the Construction Sector

As Table 3A shows over the past 14 quarters, women have only been 10% of the construction workforce in 3 of those quarters. This ratio is also reflected in the CSO’s Gender Balance in Business Survey 2021 where in construction just 9.5% of the senior executives are women. A percentage that falls to just 4.5% for directors.

The construction sector needs to address this imbalance but by addressing it and removing the other barriers to careers in construction noted in this report, a pathway to ensuring a successful industry into the future can be found.

Delivery arrangements

As this work derives from a deliverable under Housing for All, Working Group members agree that they will provide updates, through DFHERIS, to the Industry Capability Group.

This will be done in conjunction with biannual reporting by the department on the projections of the Report on the Analysis of Skills for Residential Construction & Retrofitting 2023–2030. Working Group members agree to provide the department with updates on their actions at the appropriate intervals to enable this.

In addition, consideration will be given to the establishment of a Delivery Oversight group, which will establish performance metrics and coordinate delivery of the actions.