Are we 10 years too late on technical education?

One of Andy Burnham’s first pledges as prime minister was a plan he’d already put to us in person eight years ago during a visit to our Salford headquarters. Just over a week after taking office, he announced that from age 14, pupils in England will be able to combine core subjects with technical education built around local industries.

His government has also recently announced that new work-based GCSEs, including building and construction, are being introduced from 2029.

The pitch in 2018 when opening our training centre was identical to the one he’s making now as PM. If we wait until young people are choosing GCSEs, let alone A-levels, we’ve already lost most of them to the idea that construction and engineering are ‘fallback’ careers. Eight years on, that argument has finally become national policy. Progress, yes, but also proof of how slowly this industry, and country, moves on skills.

CITB’s latest Construction Workforce Outlook says the industry needs 41,200 extra workers a year through to 2030, roughly 206,000 people in total, just to keep pace with demand. The analysis is clear. Too few people are entering, too many are leaving, and productivity gains aren’t closing the gap. That’s not a future problem; it’s a right-now problem for real sites with real deadlines.

Local mayors, schools, colleges and employers are being tasked with delivering the government’s plan together, and there’s a new national target for employers to help create 200,000 work experience opportunities for under-16s.

It’s genuinely good news, but it’s also nearly a decade late. If you work in construction, you’ll already know that.

So, what does this mean if you’re running a contracting business, managing client relationships or advising on projects that need skilled people three, five, or 10 years from now? It means you can’t wait for 2029. 

Government pathways take years to design, fund and roll out properly and, even then, they only work if employers commit to providing a genuine route from ‘giving it a go at 14’ to getting a job when leaving school. Careers talks and one-off site visits don’t shift how a 14-year-old, or their parents, think about the industry. Consistent employer involvement does.

It also means being honest about the barriers that policy alone won’t fix. A pathway is only as good as the school delivering it, and plenty of schools don’t have the workshop space, equipment or teachers trained to properly run technical construction courses. That represents a resourcing gap, not a curriculum tweak, and it needs funding, not just an announcement.

Then there’s the stigma nobody likes admitting to. Too many parents, teachers and careers advisers still steer capable young people towards university and white-collar roles, treating construction as the fallback for those who “aren’t as academic”, despite the pay, security and demand on offer.

Andy Burnham can open a pathway. He can’t stop a parent from believing their child is settling for less by taking this route. That’s on us and anyone with a platform in this industry to say so. 

The fact is that if construction keeps drawing from the same narrow pool it always has, this policy will just produce more of the same, faster. Mayors, schools and employers need to actively go after those who have never set foot on a site, not just the ones already halfway convinced.

The prime minister was right in 2018, and he’s right now. The difference is he now has the power to make it national. The rest of us can’t wait until 2029 to start showing we agree with him. Clients, consultants and contractors who get ahead of this now will be the ones with a strong workforce in five years. Those who wait for the policy to do the work for them won’t be.

Jen Buckley is director of people and client services at Thermatic