Worshipful Company gears up youth campaign

The Worshipful Company of Builders Merchants is stepping up its Build A Career in Merchanting campaign to encourage young people to take up a career in the builders merchant sector.

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The campaign arose from WCoBM attending exhibitions; talking to school children, parents and teachers; presenting in schools; and realising that as an industry merchanting has not been good at communicating what it’s all about, what’s good about it, and why it matters.

Youth recruitment and this campaign is a particular passion of current Master Brian Blanchard who told BMJ: “Awareness of construction is low, and it’s not generally on the list of careers to consider, and parents and teachers tend to steer their children and students away from it. At a time when the industry has a skills and capacity shortfall that’s a serious problem.

“The reality is, our industry is a big and important one with tremendous career prospects. ”
The campaign is targeted at young people leaving school or college and looking for a career where they can develop new skills, build qualifications and explore new avenues.
The core of the campaign includes a new video on the benefits of working in our industry featuring personal accounts from individuals and a new leaflet which speaks to young people, with key facts and figures on construction.

Both the video and leaflet are available to view/download on the website:. http://www.wcobm.co.uk/about/build-your-career/