The importance of plugging the talent gap across Australia’s construction sector to put a dent in the country’s housing crisis took centre stage at Sydney Build 2024, writes Maricel Cavestany, Regional Manager Oceania and Isaac Ryan, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)
Firstly, for those who do not know CIOB’s role within the construction industry, our nearly 50,000 global members work worldwide in the development, conservation, and improvement of the built environment. Everything we do is to improve the quality of life for those creating and using the built environment.
It was our pleasure to be a part of Sydney Build for the sixth year running and CIOB was delighted to be one of the headline sponsors.
We organised panel discussions and networking events, giving the sector’s most talented and experienced practitioners a platform to discuss some of the most challenging obstacles the sector faces.
With more than 24,000 construction representatives in attendance, we heard a range of priorities, but one of the stand-out core themes was the urgent need to address the country’s skills issue.
It is no secret Australia needs more housing, in New South Wales alone there is a deficit of more than 200,000 social housing dwellings, but without the right number of skilled workers to build them, we are facing a crossroads.
There is a significant lack of specific skills, including safety inspectors, procurement managers and a variety of engineers.
To attract and retain the right talent means we need to educate, and our panellists, addressing an audience of more than 80 people at a time, spoke at length about the importance of collaboration among government, academia, industry and professional bodies to enhance sector capability.
Meanwhile, Brendan Sweeney MCIOB, Multiplex’s Regional Director for New South Wales/Australian Capital Territory, spoke about providing incentives for training, further subsidies for apprentices, promoting micro-credentials and addressing underrepresented groups.
He spoke about the importance of focusing on women, Indigenous communities, the long-term unemployed, people with disability and the potential of up-skilling formerly incarcerated people to help ease the skills gap through transition coaching, back into the workplace.
Participants also stressed the importance of professional bodies in addressing the skills gap, advocating for Continuous Professional Development (CPD) to bridge it.
The construction industry lags behind other sectors in CPD participation, something panel chair David McCarthy pointed out with a great example of how hairdressers undertake CPD up to 10 times more than builders do. It was suggested that there is a need for a cultural shift to prioritise ongoing learning and skill development.
Niall McSweeney MCIOB, Head of Development Advisory Altus Group, identified some of the economic constraints in the current market and the issues concerning the participation rates in different sectors having a particular impact on the residential market. Rising costs, interest rates and increased charges are creating negative influences on feasibility, which directly correlates with the volume of product delivered.
Niall also pointed out that some of the solutions to addressing falling productivity in the industry may require a different approach to the method of construction, and delivery, embracing design for manufacture assembly (DfMA) or a higher use of prefabrication. CPD becomes particularly important in being able to implement new approaches while maintaining quality.
According to Michaela Cook FCIOB, project director at Rubix, we need to maintain our professionalism in the industry as a matter of routine. Belonging to a professional organisation makes it easy to access CPD as well as demonstrating your commitment to it.
Promoting and maintaining professionalism will lead to an improvement in quality. While recruiting the right number of skilled workers to address the construction demand across Australia is vital, we were pleased to hear so many people talking about quality with equal importance.
After all, the quality of the built environment is key to everyone’s quality of life and is the legacy we leave behind for future generations.
As we have already pointed out, there is a significant demand for housing right across the country, but we must focus on the quality of housing we provide as well as the quantity.
It came as no surprise to us that throughout Sydney Build 2024, there was a lot of talk about the importance of inclusivity in our industry and particularly the need to make construction a place where women can thrive.
Equality, diversity and inclusion are among our key focuses and we want to ensure the industry is an inclusive space where women feel welcome and valued. CIOB hopes making the construction industry a more attractive place to work will help us entice more women into working within the sector.
Brendan spoke about CIOB’s #ppethatfits campaign, a campaign launched in 2023 that aims to make health and safety equipment tailored to women more readily available. He also highlighted how women only make up 12 per cent of the construction industry, with just 2 per cent working in trades.
Meanwhile, Michaela endorsed the efforts to continue the conversation about attracting and retaining women in the industry as inspiration for all the less visibly diverse groups who also need to be recruited and included in the construction community.
To summarise, this year’s Sydney Build event was yet another incredible experience that brought together some of the leading minds in Australia’s construction sector to address some of the more prominent issues the industry faces.
CIOB was thrilled to play its part as one of the headline sponsors, addressing the audience on key concerns such as addressing the skills gap through education and training and making the sector a more welcoming place for women and other underrepresented people.
Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to engage with our panellists throughout the expo and for your valued contribution to the discussions.
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