Open Doors: Construction Site Visits For Everyone
It's amazing what you find on Twitter when you're not looking. Today I was just idly browsing when Go Construct's Open Doors caught my eye: Did you know that from Monday the 13th to Saturday the 18th of June nearly...
It’s amazing what you find on Twitter when you’re not looking. Today I was just idly browsing when Go Construct’s Open Doors caught my eye:
Did you know that from Monday the 13th to Saturday the 18th of June nearly 50 construction sites around the UK are opening their hoardings and offering free tours?
It’s a fantastic initiative, primarily aimed at educating the public on what construction is about and how the built environment is, well, built. With so much of our work put into finding ways to minimise the impact our work has on the public and hiding away our sites under construction; it’s great to see campaigns like this opening them back up again and engaging the communities these works are for.
With a huge number of participating sites, Open Doors has an impressive coverage of the country; and it should be pretty easy for anyone even remotely interested to find something near them. There’s also a good range of sites, with some famous names included such as Battersea Power Station, the Forth Replacement Crossing, and No 1 Spinningfields in Manchester.
The sad fact about the construction skill shortage is that so many potential engineers aren’t getting into the industry because they just don’t know what we do. It’s nothing personal, they just didn’t even consider it- did you look up every job in the world before picking your career? Initiatives like this give some much needed visibility to the oft hidden work we do in the built environment; and that’s why they’re so important.
So if you want to show someone what you do, know someone (teenager or adult) looking for a way into the construction industry, or perhaps even a school/youth club that needs a trip sometime soon…
