Skills shortages was the overwhelming category of choice for students taking part in the JCT Student Competition 2017, with the overall winner and both runners-up providing unique and interesting takes on the topic. Creativity, original tone of voice, and clarity of ideas were all on show, whether using the written word, photography, visual graphics or designs, highlighting the depth of talent and broad range of skills of the students who enter each year. The 2017 competition ran from September 2016 to March 2017 with judging…

JCT’s Student Competition continues for 2017, focusing on creativity and finding innovative solutions to address a range of industry topics and issues. Categories for this year’s competition included skills shortages, sustainability, collaboration, BIM, technology, and health and wellbeing. Students can enter their submissions in any format they choose – it could be a video, design or drawing, photographic essay, traditional essay – as long as the idea is creative and original, the competition is designed to be flexible to allow students to form their answer…

Blog Author: Christine Townley – Executive Director, Construction Youth Trust It’s been well known in the industry for many years that we are facing a skills shortage caused by an ageing construction workforce and the return to economic growth. It’s vital that the industry plans for the future and secures the talent and skills needed, so that it has recruited effectively for the workforce of tomorrow. There is a lack of young people coming into the industry to sustain it at the moment – only…

JCT’s annual student competition will be running for 2017, opening in October 2016 and closing in March 2017. Once again, the overall winner’s prize will be £1,000, with two runner-up prizes of £250 also available. Following the success of last year’s competition, this year’s competition will continue the same focus on creativity and innovation. In recognising the different learning requirements of construction courses and disciplines, the competition will be open to receiving entries in a variety of media, including video, photography, photographic essay, drawings or designs, written essays, articles or any other creative format. However they present…

JCT Student Competition 2016 – Overall Winner’s Essay Tom Haworth, Westminster University An essay addressing skills shortages in the construction industry, focusing upon the lack of experience-based architectural training during the early years of UK architectural education.   The Challenge Of The Unknown As a current Part Three student, I am approaching the end of a long qualification process. This essay contains my reflections on the process so far, and the change I would like to see, based on my observations. The problem, is that architects are currently not…