Construction Industry Federation Annual Conference 2018

Are you attending this years Construction Industry Federation Conference?

CONSTRUCTING IRELAND 2040: HOW THE INDUSTRY WILL SHAPE COMMUNITIES, CAREERS AND COMPETITIVENESS IN THE NEXT 25 YEARS

This year’s Construction Industry Federation conference will be held in Croke Park stadium on the 2nd October.

What is this years objective?
The fundamental objective of the Construction Industry Federation conference is to deliver the vision of Project 2040 which aims to build a better society, boost our economy and create large scale employment.

As the Irish population is estimated to grow by one million by 2040, we will have increased demand for homes, transport, education and employment.

Project 2040:
Project 2040 will provide Ireland with a future of wellbeing, equality and opportunity for everyone, however we are inevitably facing a continual housing and infrastructure crisis.

Project Ireland 2040 estimates that 550,000 homes will be required over the next 20 years, and the National Development Plan commits €11.6 billion to providing 112,000 new social homes by 2027.

How can we meet the requirements of Project2040 and how will the Construction leaders of Ireland overcome these barriers?

Following the crash in the property market, employment in the building & construction industry fell which led to many skilled workers emigrating in the search for work.

The latest SCSI/PwC Construction Market Monitor Report 2018 states that skill shortages remain a serious challenge for Ireland’s construction sector.

The key focus for industry leaders needs to be a huge hiring drive, such as outreach programmes in school, but also a recruitment drive in order to attract skilled labour back to Ireland.

If you are thinking of coming (home) to Ireland to work in the Construction Industry, Read our blog!

What will be discussed at the conference?
On the day, the Construction Industry Federation have an amazing line up – we will hear from notable Construction industry members including:

Brian Morrisroe-Founder and CEO, Morrisroe Group and member of the Construction Leadership Council, UK on the topic of ‘What does the future hold for the construction workforce?: Future-proofing our industry’.

We will have an industry panel discussion on ‘Solutions and challenges to improving productivity and competitiveness’ with Ann Dooley (MD, Winthrop Engineering and Contracting Ltd) Gordon O’Regan (CEO, L&M Keating) Tara Flynn (Director, Paul Flynn Construction) Fergal Murphy (General Manager, Kingspan Insulation Ireland)

And many others discussing topics such as:

  • Ireland’s key capital infrastructure priorities
  • The challenge of mega infrastructure projects
  • Diversity, inclusion and skills development
  • The intersection of technology and infrastructure
  • The economic outlook and impact of Budget 2019

Who will be attending?
Construction Industry Federation members, Developers, Planners, Engineers, Contractors, Policy-makers and Service providers to the construction sector will attend and exhibit at the anticipated Construction event of the year.

Come by and say hello to us at our stand at the Construction Industry Federation conference on the 2nd October.

Industry News:
According to the Construction Information Services research team, ‘11,752 Republic of Ireland Construction projects valued above €38.9bn have been added or updated on their online database to date this year.

The Irish Times have conducted their monthly survey of cranes in Dublin. For the month of September, 93 cranes have been counted across the Dublin skyline, a record number since the newspaper launched their crane survey in February, 2016.

This is an increase of 13 more cranes since the last highest number recorded of 80 on December 1st, 2017.

According to Derry Scully’s (Group President at Linesight) review of the Irish construction industry performance thus far in 2018, he states that construction will continue to grow strongly into 2019. Looking back to the beginning of the year, Linesight predicted that construction activity would reach €20.1 billion. However, now in September it is looking like it will be closer to €21 billion.

We are seeing continual rapid growth, however we are only at 55% of the 2007 peak output of €38 billion, but it must be emphasized this peak was unsustainable and detrimental.

The economy is approaching full employment but we are still experiencing a construction skills shortage crisis. Recruitment is a concern for main contractors, sub-contractors, as well as the design professions.

With a smaller pool of young people entering skilled trades, Irish Construction needs to employ more women in construction if the industry is to have a sustainable future.

Read our Blog: Women in Construction – Barriers & Importance of Gender Inclusiveness

All of the above-mentioned activity is generally providing confidence for the country that we are moving in the right direction, but we certainly have a lot more work to do.

Click here to view all available jobs in Construction and Engineering.

If you would like to have a conversation about opportunities in the construction sector – please email Amy on abradley@servisource.ie or Joe on joe.kenny@servisource.ie

CIF Digital Construction Summit 2018

Inside the Digital Construction Summit 2018 

The Construction Revolution

As today marks International Women’s day, I want to highlight a statistic related to the construction industry: 136,000 people work in construction and just 8% of these are women. Ironically, today also marks the official launch of the #buildingequality campaign, a campaign to change the perceptions of the construction industry and promote equality of opportunity for all.

The #buildingequality campaign was brought to my attention in greater detail yesterday at the CIF Digital Construction Summit in Croke park by some of the speakers. It is one of the steps that has been taken to move away from the traditional construction industry we are familiar with and is a central focus of the CIF. There has been an immense push of publicity using the Lottie doll dressed with a hard hat and #buildingequality.

At the CIF Digital Construction Summit yesterday, I had the opportunity to listen to many notable speakers who accurately provided me with an insight into the innovative digital construction transformation, an area that is quite new to me as a recruitment consultant, but again another area that we all need to proactively move with.

The day was certainly centred around leaving the traditional industry we are still very much affiliated with.

Some of the takeaways I left with were:

  • Germany Vs Ireland- There are 2% of school leavers taking up apprenticeships in Ireland in comparison with 60% in Germany. In Ireland there is a perception of ‘you must go to college’ and apprenticeships are neglected, whereas in these mainland Europe they have the opposite outlook. This must change as speedily as the digital transformation.
  • #buildingequality– is aimed at increasing and encouraging the number of women working in construction, a key objective for the CIF.
  • Measuring Vs Doing- An interesting comment made by one of the speakers was that “there should be less Quantity surveyors on site and more Foremen/Supervisors.” This comment may prove controversial for many, however as a prevalent topic of conversation today, the people on the ground incorporating the digital move into their daily work routine is an essential collaboration to encourage modernisation and as a result allows Quantity Surveyors to focus on their area of expertise- QS’s don’t build projects, Foremen do.
  • A view from the industry- Eoin Vaughan, CEO (Mercury Engineering) delivered a very relevant and reassuring presentation for main contractors in Ireland. He also reiterated that a culture of innovation needs to be nurtured and trades are not being used as agents for digital transformation. We need more engagement with the people on the ground. It is no longer sufficient to have your BIM hub in an office, it must filter through onsite.
  • Modernisation- Digitalisation in construction is not solely BIM, it is about encouraging an organisation to move towards digitalisation. Kids in today’s world grow up with an iPad, they are consumed by the digital world, so how can we prepare for them entering the workforce?
  • Costs- for the smaller construction companies who are feeling the pressure of the financial implications of digitalisation was that it is unnecessary to go on a spending spree on these new systems. However, what is essential is that you move with this revolution, do your research and find a cheap system that you can adapt to your organisation that works for you.

The key take away for the construction industry is digital is here to stay and will continue to evolve into a bigger beast. It must be embraced and nurtured and in turn will enhance the sector and create a leaner, more productive industry. Lastly, it does not need to be financially feared.