Starting a new conversation

/ Blog

It’s National Apprenticeship Week and across the country, many organisations are taking to the digital airwaves to share their stories of how apprenticeships have worked for their people, and their business.

At Seddon, we recruit around 20 apprentices each year and are fortunate to receive a high number of applications from youngsters who are actively pursuing a career in construction.  But what about those candidates that, for whatever reason, construction just isn’t an option, yet whose skill set, attitude and approach are exactly what we are looking for?

There will always be a cohort of applicants who are moulded into a career in construction, by family members, friends and education, but there are a number of youngsters who are told they are too academically advanced for construction, some encouraged to pursue full time education, and some are even told ‘construction is not for girls.’

So how do we reach out to this untapped talent pool and get them to consider a career in construction when everyone around them, is guiding them in a different direction?

This isn’t a new problem for our industry, but it’s one we’ve been working to address. We’ve changed the language of our recruitment campaigns, we’re looking at how and where we recruit, and using our own apprentices to tell their stories, hoping to spark interest in new audiences. We’re throwing the door to our industry wide open, looking at apprenticeships, placements, mentoring and work shadowing, and linking in with schools, colleges, job centres, social initiatives, local authority programmes, with the aim of making the industry accessible and inclusive.

We’re starting a new conversation about construction, and taking steps to keep that conversation going, because it’s no good preaching to the choir, when we should be talking to those who didn’t even know they could sing.

Written by Jonathan Seddon, CEO Seddon Group.