As the government urges early retirees back into the workplace, the over-50s talent pool could help solve construction’s skills conundrum
The government is encouraging early retirees to get back into the workplace.
In my view, it’s a crying shame that so much intellectual capital and experience of the construction industry should be lost prematurely when people take early retirement.
The over-50s have vast resources. And those resources should be harnessed and shared with the younger generation.
Some over-50s took early retirement during or after the pandemic. There’s now a move to entice them to return to the workforce to help stimulate the economy.
Untapped resource
This age group has a lot of wisdom and experience to share with those joining the construction profession. They have a lot to give. In my view, the over-50s are an enormous untapped resource.
There are stacks of people out there like me, who have had a successful first career but who could go on to have a second successful career in teaching, mentoring or training
My personal journey has taken me from a BSc Hons Construction Management student in the 1980s to the founding partner of Focus Consultants.
The business was launched in my dining room in Beeston, Nottingham, in the mid-1990s and has grown to become a multi-disciplinary company with offices in London, Leicester and Nottingham and a £6 million annual fee turnover managing more than £300 million of construction projects each year.
But for the past eight years, I’ve been revisiting the corridors of Nottingham Trent University (NTU) – this time as a lecturer, having gradually stepped away from frontline consultancy following a structured management buy-in (MBI) of Focus Consultants.
I remain a majority shareholder and operate as joint chairperson, now largely overseeing the business.
However, my reduced hours, year on year, have given me the opportunity to teach construction management, quantity surveying and construction commercial management, contract administration, and control and finance to NTU undergraduates.
I would encourage the over-50s to consider ways that they can share their knowledge and skills, rather than leave the industry altogether. It’s stimulating and it’s certainly something that I would recommend to others
It’s been a wonderful experience to return to my former university and has not only benefited me personally, but has also brought a number of benefits both to Focus Consultants and to NTU.
Beneficial partnership
The university has been able to tap into the knowledge and resources of the Focus team, while Focus has been able to recruit skilled graduates to join the business.
The partnership between the two organisations has recently been formalised in a three-year framework that will help foster future talent and offer collaboration opportunities and knowledge exchange, guest lecturing and more.
I’ve enjoyed a very fulfilling career in consultancy and I’m very proud of the business that I, my partners and my colleagues have built up over the past 30 years.
As I approach 60, it feels good to be giving something back to help future generations. It’s also been extremely positive for me personally to have had a second career teaching in my 50s.
I never thought I would become a published author or be part of a team that won an internationally significant award for an academic paper, but that’s what has happened as a result of taking on a teaching role at NTU.
I would encourage the over-50s to consider ways that they can share their knowledge and skills, rather than leave the industry altogether. It’s stimulating and it’s certainly something that I would recommend to others if it’s relevant and appropriate for them.
I’ve just been appointed as an NTU alumni and industry fellow, and it feels really good that I can still play a very useful role as I move into the next decade of my career.
Kevin Osbon MCIOB is a founder of Focus Consultants and an alumni and industry fellow at Nottingham Trent University.
