As we move into an increasingly digital world, trade careers are becoming less popular with young people as they continue to choose university placements over apprenticeships – but as number of women and ethnic minority tradespeople increase, what does the future of the industry look like?

In 2022, there were 767,000 applications for full-time undergraduate places through UCAS, a new record level. This is a complete juxtapose to apprenticeship starts, which were down by 6.1% to 122,290 compared to 130,240 reported for the same period in 2021.

Although trade professions are seemingly becoming less popular with the next generation, the demand isn’t decreasing. The latest figures from the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) estimate that 224,900 extra workers will be needed to meet UK construction demand by 2027 as the industry recovers from this year’s expected recession. That equates to 44,980 new workers every year between now and 2027.

So what can be done to make younger people choose to go down the path towards a trade career? It could be down to the parents. More than three quarters of parents believe that construction skills should be more valued by society, according to new polling.

YouGov asked 2000 parents across the UK about the public perception of trades, such as building, plumbing and electrical, and found that 84% believe that construction skills don’t get the credit they deserve.

The results also showed that 80% of parents believe an apprenticeship provides better (52%) or equal (28%) value for money compared to a degree.

Unlike classroom based educations such as universities, apprentices learn from two different spectrums – educational and what happens in the outside world – which gives you get a better experience of learning on the job.

Although the numbers of young people are dropping, the diversifying workforce is bridging the gap for construction demand…

Women and ethnic minorities represent an untapped talent pool that could address the UK’s labour and skills shortage, says a new report from Energy Systems Catapult.

The report, ‘Increasing diversity in the heating sector to address the skills shortage and meet Net Zero’, states that women account for only 2% of the heating industry workforce, and only 5% of those in the heating sector have an ethnic minority background.

There are more than double the number of women working in the construction trades than a decade ago, with 18,000 more women working as builders, electricians and plumbers in 2019 than in 2009, with the Gender pay gap narrower in construction trades than across all industries.