UK Construction Week will be taking place at the beginning of October. With more than 650 exhibitors and 35,000 construction professionals set to attend, UK Construction Week is an event where you will find the skills, expertise, and solutions for anything and everything to do with construction, all in one place.
Technological advances shaping the future of the UK construction industry are sure to have a big presence at the multi-day show. For example, building information modeling (BIM) is already making construction quicker, safer, and more automated. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) enable us to see finished projects before construction even starts by visualising 3D drawings. Drones are being deployed to monitor plant at a safe distance and to check on job-site progress. Some ambitious firms are even starting to introduce robots to their construction workforce.
Let’s hope they have their CSCS card!
But beyond technology, here are the three topics poised to dominate conversation at UK Construction Week.
The Effects of Brexit on UK Construction Week and Beyond
Wouldn’t it be great if we could look one year into the future at UK Construction Week 2019? I’m sure everyone would love to see how the UK construction industry has adapted to a post-Brexit world, deal or no deal. Will our EU exit result in significant upheaval of our industry? Will tightened purse strings have an adverse effect on BIM, AR, VR, and other technologies? These innovations have changed the face of construction in recent times, so it’ll be interesting to see if they disappear or simply “Keep Calm and Carry On.”
The UK Construction Industry’s Labour Problem
The UK construction industry is facing a huge skills shortage. Put frankly, construction companies need people more than they need land to build on. According to the Chartered Institute of Builders (CIOB), the industry will need to find 157,000 new recruits by 2021 to keep up with demand.
To combat this lack of manpower, our industry has begun to employ initiatives like Minecraft competitions to engage younger audiences. As a joiner and carpenter, I heartily recommend pursuing construction as a sustainable and exciting career path. Construction pays well, offers lots of qualifications, and features plenty of cool gadgets to play with.
Wish I had neat gizmos to play with back in my day!
Funding the Future
New technologies and innovative work approaches don’t come from thin air. World-leading products and people require funding to be fully realised. Should public funding get slashed, it’s unknown whether the private sector alone will be able to pick up the slack. What is clear is that the UK construction industry is a world leader, and in order to thrive, requires methods of building affordably, efficiently, and safely in cutting edge ways.
For now, we can only imagine what the next year will bring for UK Construction Week.
