Our Content Calendar theme of the month is Training & Recruitment. Throughout April we have wanted to open the conversation to highlight how people with unique voices and abilities from across the spectrum can fill the skills gap and build a more equal, fair construction industry.
In this blog we are rounding up the articles, interviews and job opportunities of our own at Barbour ABI that have been published across the past month to look at some of the work and solutions that are being put in place across construction today. Take a look below and dive into the articles that take your interest!
Training and recruitment: A life-changing tale – by Damon Schünmann, Strategic Consultant at Barbour ABI
Our Strategic Consultant Damon Schünmann got the ball rolling with our first training and recruitment article of the month.
This month Damon spoke to Cristina Turcu who, after finishing a high-school baccalaureate in Romania, came to the UK with no traditional construction skills and has now ended up as a site administrator at Sisk.
Beginning her unorthodox route to Sisk with no knowledge of the industry, and no goal of ending up in construction, Cristina made the most of a great work ethic and a will to make the most of an opportunity.
Cristina’s story of how she began cleaning construction sites and progressed up the career ladder is a truly inspirational success story. Click below to read the full story of how Cristina is using education to further her career and how she advocates for more woman in construction.
Building Trust and Developing Apprenticeships in construction – with Iain McIlwee
We recently sat down to interview Iain McIlwee, CEO at the Barbour Product Search partner organisation, the Finishes & Interiors Sector (FIS). We spoke to Iain about how he and the FIS are doing lots of work around creating frameworks that will build trust and develop future training and apprenticeships networks across the construction industry.
In the interview, Iain discusses the issues with attempting a ‘one size fits all’ approach to schemes such as apprenticeships, and how the FIS are attempting to build a dialogue with businesses of various sizes to see who is most well equipped to provide apprenticeship schemes so that there can be a thriving apprenticeship scheme several years down the line.
Read the full interview with Iain
Autism Awareness within construction – Written by Lucy Knight, Researcher at Barbour ABI
Barbour ABI’s own Lucy, a key member of our industry-leading research team, wrote a blog for us this month on the positives and negatives of working as a member of the Autistic community.
Lucy’s blog touches upon the difficulties brought about by the general lack of understanding and awareness of autism in society and the disproportionate difficulties that women face in being diagnosed and given support with the condition. As Lucy highlights in her piece, “the only way to eradicate ignorance is to educate”.
Lucy’s blog educates the reader by explaining how to provide workplace support to a colleague with autism and provides several links and explanations of key terms in order to further the knowledge of those who wish to learn more and become a better ally to their colleagues in the autistic community.
Jobs at Barbour ABI
It would be amiss of us to write an entire blog about working and training within the industry without letting you know about all of the new work opportunities right here at Barbour ABI!
Our Careers page is always updated with the latest available roles at Barbour ABI. There are roles right across the spectrum of responsibility and experience grades, so there is something for everybody to apply for, no matter your experience.
When somebody new joins our team at Barbour ABI, there is a plethora of training and development for colleagues in order to further their skills and careers. We want to be the best and to work with the best, and the only way to do that is for us all to continually get better in our roles.
Take a look at our Careers page to check out all of the opportunities available right now.
And then take a look at our blog that lays out all the reasons that we think you’d love to come and work at Barbour ABI!
Don’t forget, you can see our entire Content Calendar for 2021. And, if you think you’ve got an idea for something that would work for any of the upcoming months’ topics then give us an email at hello@barbour-abi.com and we would love to discuss it further with you!
