Apprenticeships: the secret ingredient for diversity in the built environment?
Posted on: 23 September, 2024
Apprenticeships can offer a raft of benefits for businesses, including a chance to improve the diversity of their hiring pool.
The benefits of having a diverse workforce are well documented. Diverse teams are 35% more likely to outperform their competitors, 87% better at making decisions, and have 19% higher rates of innovation. Companies with greater inclusion have also been shown to be more profitable and, crucially, have more engaged employees.
Yet while the advantages of inclusion are clear, change is often slow. In the built environment, industries like construction and surveying remain male-dominated, with just 15.8% of the construction workforce made up of women. The status quo is much the same in urban planning (33.4%) and architecture (23.3%),
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Flexible working, addressing the lack of appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and reviewing how we collect data on diversity are several key ways the sector can improve inclusion. Yet as the built environment finds itself woefully short of the skills it needs to achieve a sustainable future, these measures alone aren’t enough – diversity must be baked into the hiring and recruitment practices of organisations.
Enter higher and degree apprenticeships. This growing method of training can offer a range of benefits for both built environment organisations and professionals, particularly around diversity. Here’s how.
Opening doors to applicants from different backgrounds
One of the key benefits of higher and degree apprenticeships is their ability to increase the diversity of an organisation’s talent pool. With built environment industries like construction and real estate not having the same level of awareness as professions like law and finance in schools, apprenticeships can help to ensure the pipeline of talent you have access to is different from those of traditional universities.
Apprenticeships can also bring people with different perspectives. They’re popular among older demographics as well as school leavers, and with the flexibility offered by apprenticeship models like UCEM’s, they can open the doors to carers, parents, and people with responsibilities outside of their 9 to 5.
As Morag Watson, Estates Team Leader for the Environment Agency, notes:
“I want to be able to stand and look around my office and see a team with different backgrounds and skills that better represent the communities we serve. A more diverse workforce brings fresh perspectives and enables public services to benefit from a wider range of unique qualities.”
Learn more: Improving public sector diversity through apprenticeships
Bringing forth new ideas and perspectives
New ideas are in high demand in our sector. The challenge presented by climate change and the need to make our operations align with net zero carbon targets has created a demand for innovators and problem solvers. However, if businesses are continually sourcing from the same talent pool, it’s likely they’ll continue to get similar ideas and perceptions.
Increasing diversity in hiring can bring in different perspectives that previously weren’t considered or heard in the decision-making process. A key example of this is gender-biased urban design, and how the failure to consider the needs of women has led to the creation of spaces that don’t cater to their safety and lifestyles. Apprenticeships can address this, and the different perspectives from this diverse source of talent can help the entire building lifecycle to become more inclusive.
As Frankie Andrews, Associate Director for Talent, Learning & Development at CBRE, told us in a previous article:
“If you’re only recruiting people from the same schools, or who look the same, then you’re doing something wrong in my eyes. Apprentices are a great way of building that diversity pipeline.”
Plugs skills gaps and shortages
It’s no secret that the built environment is suffering from a skills shortage. With 41% of the construction workforce predicted to have retired by 2031 and businesses woefully short of the skills they need to make their operations sustainable, apprenticeships are likely going to play a key role in addressing the green skills gap.
The appeal of apprenticeships and flexible learning models to people from different social mobility backgrounds can help built environment employers source from different talent pools – namely the women who represent 50% of the population in countries like the UK. It’s a case of two birds with one stone, as not only can businesses get the talent they need to plug urgent skills gaps, but they can also be involved in improving the equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) of the industry.
Demonstrating social value
Apprenticeships are also an excellent way for organisations to demonstrate their commitment to and create social value, according to frameworks like TOMS (Themes, Outcomes and Measures System) and the Social Value Charter. This learning model can help close the class pay gap, as people from lower socio-economic backgrounds that undertake an apprenticeship have the opportunity to receive a bigger boost to their earnings. Businesses that set up apprenticeship schemes can also partner with schools and colleges to make their recruitment programmes as inclusive as possible, or even to provide employment to people with special educational needs.
Final thoughts
There’s no denying the benefits that apprenticeships can offer, and the potential impact they could have on the inclusivity of our industry. However, the key obstacle preventing us from realising these benefits for employer and employee alike is the lack of awareness of this pathway. As Annabel Huffer, a former apprentice with UCEM and Chartered Building Surveyor, notes:
“I don’t think enough people realise that apprenticeships are actually a viable and exciting option… they can provide a more accessible route to a career which may otherwise have been difficult to enter.”
Learn more: Making waves as a female Building Surveyor: a Q&A with UCEM Alumni Annabel Huffer
To find out more and get involved with the Be Part of the Change campaign, visit the homepage, and if you’d like to get in touch with our Student Ambassadors for EDI, email outreachandinclusion@ucem.ac.uk
