The Chartered Institute of Building is backing a campaign to encourage veterans to transfer their skills to construction management.

The move comes as the industry’s skills crisis spreads from site to office as demand for professional technical and managerial staff outstrips supply.

Chris Chivers CIOB President said: “Construction is a people-based industry, and it needs leaders just as urgently as those with technical skills.

“For ex-military personnel, there has never been a better time to join the sector. Technological advances are creating new and exciting opportunities.

“But without a pipeline of new decision makers, the UK construction sector’s growth and global competitiveness will be severely under threat.

“It’s important that we act together to establish and strengthen recruitment paths across the armed forces, tapping into this very valuable resource, supporting our ex-military personnel and boosting the UK economy.”

Around 20,000 men and women leave the armed forces annually having developed strong team-working leadership and communications skills.

Military personnel have learnt to adapt to rapidly changing environments, collaborate with people from diverse backgrounds and take responsibility for the safety and wellbeing of large numbers of workers.

This makes them ideally suited to many managerial roles in construction.

CIOB is supporting BuildForce – a cross-industry initiative to raise awareness of the construction careers with armed forces leavers and veterans.

BuildForce is part-funded by CITB and led by a group of founding companies: Carillion, Crossrail, EY, Lendlease, Morgan Sindall and Wilson James.

In support of BuildForce, CIOB is promoting to armed service leavers accessible routes into a professional qualification that will help them gain management roles in construction.

Andrew Parker, Director of Defence at Morgan Sindall and Chair of BuildForce said: “With nearly 20,000 men and women leaving the armed forces every year, this provides a natural resource of managerial talent for employers.

“In many cases, ex-military personnel have already developed strong leadership and management skills, but may lack specific construction knowledge.

“Our aim at BuildForce is to bridge that gap, alerting people to the opportunities in the construction sector at an earlier stage in their military career, providing access to training, mentoring and working with organisations such as CIOB to help them gain built-environment qualifications before they leave the services.

“We would like BuildForce to become the go-to organisation for enabling ex-military personnel to get into construction whilst also helping smooth the transition into civilian life.”

For more information on the the CIOB campaign click here

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