Building Our Skills – Making Fenestration, Glass and Glazing a Career of Choice is looking into the prospect of launching a series of bespoke industry careers fairs in 2024.
The organisation, which has begun consultation with its Advisory Panel and wider group of supporters, aims for the fairs to engage directly with the wider education sector, to raise awareness of the industry, and to ‘support the longer-term aim of creating a workforce for tomorrow’.
Two pilot events are intended to run early next year in partnership with the local education authorities in Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire to coincide with National Careers Week. After this, the programme will be rolled out to other areas of the country.
Partnerships Manager, Mark Handley said: “We have begun a process of consulting closely with both fenestration industry and local education authority representatives, and the latter have confirmed that there is a strong appetite for bespoke careers fairs organised by Building Our Skills.
“We’ve been making great progress in getting education departments to recognise the industry as an excellent source of varied, long-terms career opportunities, and this is a sensible and ambitious next step for us. The fact that we can help careers professionals in schools to realise their curriculum goals makes this a win-win for all parties.”
Building Our Skills Advisory Panel member and Kubu marketing executive Morgan Fisher added: “Bespoke careers fairs could be invaluable to us. We would be very enthusiastic to be part of such an initiative. We all have to pull together in order to ensure that the skills shortages that have dogged the industry for years become a thing of the past, not just immediately but in the long term as well. The more we can all do to get youngsters talking to us and considering a career in fenestration, glass and glazing the better.”
For the remainder of this year, Building Our Skills will continue to attend other cross industry careers fairs at venues including Liverpool, Sheffield, Rotherham, Truro, Leeds, Bradford, Doncaster, Derby, London, Manchester, Stoke and Barnsley.
Ends
