Places for London inspiring the next generation to work in the built environment

Places for London (Transport for London’s wholly owned commercial property company) has teamed up with Construction Youth Trust on its educational engagement programme to inspire the next generation to work in the built environment, which encompasses both the construction and real estate sectors.

The programme is a collaboration between Places for London and its partners, including Barratt London, The Earls Court Development Company, Grainger plc and Helical plc. Working with its partners, Places for London will be starting on 20,000 homes over the next 10 years, making it one of the largest developers in the capital. Places for London is keen to use the scale of its programme to encourage new people into the industry. This is vital because research has shown that an additional 22,800 workers are expected to be required to meet construction demand in Greater London by 2027.

Following a competitive process, Places for London selected Construction Youth Trust as its Educational Engagement Programme delivery partner. It will help bring together schools, young people and employers (including role models from across the built environment industry), so that students, as well as teachers and parents, can learn more about the industry and the impact it has. Over the course of the next three years, Places for London and Construction Youth Trust aims to reach 6,750 young Londoners through a range of inspirational workshops and intensive programmes to support young people progress into built environment careers.

Through the partnership, Places for London and its partners will be directly supporting 250 young people to progress into an education, training or employment outcome related to the built environment. This could be an 18-year-old starting a degree level apprenticeship, or a 16-year-old going onto study a construction T-Level.

Thomas Glover, Construction Skills Manager at Places for London, said: “Alongside our development partners, we’re excited to work with Construction Youth Trust to engage more young people and their teachers, and show them that the built environment offers something for everyone. We can show young people how they have a real chance to shape London and, more widely, the world around them. As an industry, we need to make sure we’ve got a pipeline of brilliant and diverse talent coming through to guarantee the places around us are the best they can be.”

Carol Lynch, CEO at Construction Youth Trust, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Places for London to inspire young people to discover the wide range of career opportunities the built environment has to offer. Our aim is to support a new generation of young Londoners to become the leaders and professionals of the future by connecting them with employers who recognise that it makes business sense to invest in the capital’s diverse young talent.”

Places for London has been delivering its education engagement programme by working together with some of the UK’s leading property developers, such as Barratt London, Earls Court Development Company, Grainger plc and Helical plc. It is vital that the industry is taking action, as research undertaken by YouGov last year for Places for London showed that only 36 per cent of those surveyed between 11-18 in London and the South-East were interested in having a job in the built environment sector. The data was even more stark when broken down by gender, with just 30 per cent of female students being interested, compared to 42 per cent of male students.

Despite the sizeable influence of the built environment on everyday lives, only half of students (51 per cent) thought the built environment had an impact on their lives. A similar proportion of parents – at 57 per cent – believed the same. This is exacerbated by the findings that, of the teachers surveyed, half (51 per cent) had never heard of the built environment.

The Educational Engagement Programme is hoping to increase awareness and understanding of the built environment. It will also increase access to role models already working within the sector, with less than a fifth of the young people surveyed having ever met a civil engineer (18 per cent), real estate surveyor (14 per cent), construction project manager (13 per cent) or property manager (14 per cent).

So far, Places for London through its educational engagement programme has facilitated more than 1,300 hours of industry expert volunteering time.