Upskilling needed to fill construction industry demand

Upskilling needed to fill construction industry demand

The Construction Industry Federation has warned that Ireland may be facing a worrying construction skills shortage.

CIF reports that the industry is hiring around 1,000 people a month. Director General of CIF, Tom Parlon believes that this demand can offer Ireland an employment boom.

“There is a huge potential regional and national jobs dividend from the construction industry. The employment growth is occurring in civil engineering, contracting and in trades as the industry ramps up to meet the demand of Ireland’s rapidly growing economy and population,” he said.

However, lack of qualified personnel is a threat to continued growth. The skills shortage is particularly acute in certain sectors of the industry. Quantity surveyors and building surveyors are short supply, and there is a lack of graduates to fill the 2,000 surveying jobs expected to be created over the next three years.

One of the construction industry’s biggest attractions for employees is that the skills are in demand across the world says Rosalind Travers of CIF.

“Increasingly, the skills you gain while working in a trade or in the industry in Ireland are globally transferable. A huge number our members have the expertise and are building fantastic buildings and infrastructure in the UK, across the EU, Africa and the Far East.”

Interest in undergraduate courses linked the construction industry has increased with Ireland’s economic recovery. Applications for architecture are up 13.5 percent, for example. This has had a knock-on effect on CAO points, which have crept up for architecture, architectural technology and surveying courses.

The DIT programme required 590 points in 2015; UCD 490; 440 for the joint UCC/CIT architecture course; 390 for UL; and 310 for WIT.

Anyone considering a career in the construction industry should consider speaking to a variety of course providers to research what requirements needed, how the course is structured and what the final qualifications are before making a choice.