By 2030 the UK could be feeling the effects of a shortage of 250,000 tradespeople.
The current shortage is estimated as being 166,000 according to research by retailer Kingfisher, which owns B&Q and Screwfix.
The lack of tradespeople could cost the economy about £98bn of economic growth by 2030, the study conducted with economics consultancy Cebr, claimed.
Thierry Garnier, chief executive of Kingfisher, said: “Trade careers are high-quality, skilled jobs with significant earnings potential and they should be valued just as highly as career options which require a university degree.”
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The shortage of tradespeople is exacerbated by the lack of diversity within the sector and an absence of incentives to join the profession. Just 2% of the UK’s 900,000 tradespeople are women and only 35% of young women have considered a trade career.
Only 13% of 16 to 25-year-olds said schools encouraged them to consider trade career options, the research found, and 49% said they had never considered a career in the trades.
A separate survey of 2,000 adults found that tradesperson shortages are already having an impact across the country, with one in five (19%) people saying they had had to cancel or postpone a project in the past five years because of not being able to find a suitable tradesperson.
But over a third (37%) think young people are discouraged – by parents, schools, and the government – from considering a trade career. Among parents, 61% think children are being put off from trade careers by a focus from schools on academic rather than vocational career paths.
Among Kingfisher’s recommendations were: the need for “stronger career advice” in schools to encourage young people to take up a trade career; more emphasis on how trades could contribute to tackling climate change; improved financial hiring incentives to support SMEs in taking on and retaining apprentices; cost-of-living support to ensure trade apprenticeships are financially viable for young people; and a rise in the apprentice minimum wage to the same rate as the national minimum wage for apprentices under 19 and those in the first year of their apprenticeship.
In September, a group of construction companies came together with the aim of increasing diversity in the sector. The Construction Inclusion Coalition (CIC) has been created by major businesses to improve equity and inclusion as a new poll shows nearly half of Britons (46%) say they would be more likely to actively seek out employment opportunities in the construction industry if it demonstrated a stronger commitment to diversity.
Last year, Personnel Today reported that in many regions of the US and Canada, 10% or more of builders, electricians and plumbers were female.
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