Not just men & muddy boots campaign.
Plagued by lack of resources and with an aging workforce, the construction sector in the northwest is taking matters into their own hands to tackle the absence of skills and promote enthusiasm for a sector that leads the global economy.
Created by The Save Construction Initiative and in partnership with Salford City Council’s Head of Participation (14-19), Sarah Scanlan, the campaign named “Not Just Men & Muddy Boots” is set to release its video on 16th May to coincide with UK REIIF.
Despite the Construction sector still being one of the highest paying sectors in the UK with an average salary of £45,774 per annum it is a constant struggle to portray it as an affluent vocation.
The sector is consistently beleaguered with conflicting reports that it’s faced with a recession or that it is on the rise and soon to require 217,000 workers 2025 (as reported by CITB). Our message to the outside world is inconsistent and without action, the lack of skills could pose a serious threat to growth of the sector and the economy.
In a genius multi-faceted, cover all bases approach, the Save Construction Initiative has managed to assemble a social capital arrangement between the public and private sector to attract new talent.
Uniting to add prominence to the skills deficiency and to endorse the career prospects in an industry fundamental to sustaining a thriving economy are some of the northwest figureheads including Salford’s CEO Tom Stannard and Mayor Paul Dennett, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and the Liverpool City Region Mayor, Steve Rotheram.
Alongside local government and political leaders, and with the backing of many northwest construction businesses, the Save Construction Initiative has enrolled the help of Jacob Pasquill, a young Tik Tok influencer with over 1.7 million followers to help reinvigorate excitement for multitude of occupation choices and career development opportunities.
In a tactical maneuver, the campaign leaders hope that by working with Jacob, they can improve recruitment and combat the skill shortage by tapping into Jacob’s viewers who are primarily young people in their early teens to mid-twenties whilst simultaneously reaching out to the neet, long term unemployed and those wanting to be upskilled or re-trained.
Acting as the campaign ambassador on a voluntary basis, Jacob has been keen to help drive the message with the slogan “be part of something great” to raise visibility of the diverse and fruitful career opportunities akin to the respected positions advertised by the army or navy.
Jacob attributes his success and happy upbringing to the construction sector. “My dad is a partner at Baker Mallett LLP. His career has financially supported me and enabled me to pursue my own career and hobbies. Without the support of my parents, and their career choices, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
The promotional videos starring Jacob and a wide variety of young northwest professionals have been funded by the Save Construction Initiative event ticket sales. The not-for-profit organization prides itself on influencing the stability of the UK construction sector and this campaign aligns perfectly with their manifesto to create a resilient workforce under their theme People and that of the Construction Leadership Council industry initiative “People & Skills network”.
Phase 1, on the 16th May, the video will be circulated to every GMCA & LCCA school and college via local authority employment & skills leads and the Careers and Enterprise network.
Phase 2: Running parallel with the release of videos, we will be encouraging industry participation to:
- Populate and stream short videos of construction roles and activities with the hashtag #notjustmen&muddyboots on all social media channels to boost viewing and with the objective of making construction jobs appealing as a long-term career choice and dispel the myth it is just wet trades.
- Include the Not Just Men & Muddy Boot campaign posters on their hoarding, websites, and all other platforms visible to non-construction people.
- Adopt the hashtag and strapline in all external communications during community engagement or social value activities.
Zoe Brooke, CEO of the Save Construction Initiative, and a volunteer with GMCA Careers and Enterprise Co. states:
“Our statistics for new entrants are on a persistent decline and heading towards a crisis point. Despite best endeavors to raise the profile of the sector, the impact to date has been nominal with everyone working in silo’s.
The sector is consistently beleaguered with conflicting reports that it’s faced with a recession or that it is on the rise and soon to require 217,000 workers 2025 (as reported by CITB). Our message to the outside world is inconsistent and without action, the lack of skills could pose a serious threat to growth of the sector and the economy.
To penetrate the demographic of young people we need to work together and change perceptions from the inside out.
No-one knows the construction industry well as those employed in it, and we need to show the world how great our sector is. To do this, we need to be visible on trending social platforms where young people frequent and work with careers and employment leads to sign post them appropriately.”
The Save construction Initiative has rallied support from the heavy weights of society and we are now relying on industry’s participation for this campaign to be a success.
Paul Dennett, Salford City Mayor, added:
“We’re pleased to be working with the Save Construction Initiative on this great campaign to showcase the construction industry to young people in Salford.
We are committed to providing opportunities for young people in this sector and linking them with the tremendous growth that’s taking place across the city. Our Build Salford scheme has brought together over 20 industry partners who share our passion to create as many opportunities in construction for young people as possible.
The scheme has supported over 100 young people to get into the industry so far and is going from strength to strength.”
The video will be gifted to the schools and colleges free of charge and the videos and posters are available to download from the app displayed on the posters.