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A shortage of apprentices in the construction sector is in part due to a reluctance among younger people to “get out of bed for seven o’clock in the morning”, a manager in the engineering sector has said.
Conor Gray, apprentice development manager at engineering contractor Mercury, said people were not applying to become electricians, plumbers and pipefitters at a time when they are sorely needed.
“The hours that we work, a lot of our projects will start at seven in the morning. I’d be perfectly honest, there’s an awful lot of young people that don’t like getting out of the bed for seven o’clock in the morning and that’s just a fact,” he told The Itish Times. “About a month ago we put out an advertisement across all the social media platforms and everywhere else looking for 35 people and we got about two applications.”
Mr Gray was speaking at an apprenticeship expo held in Tallaght stadium, west Dublin to mark the start of Construction Work and Skills week.
There was a skills shortage across the construction industry but particularly facing homebuilders, he said. “There’s an awful lot of traffic coming down from Northern Ireland, tradespeople coming down from the North that are probably back filling the shortage that we have down here,” he said.
Tom Parlon, head of the Construction Industry Federation, said he would be “slow to tar young people as lazy or unmotivated” and added other sectors such as hospitality were facing big challenges finding workers.
The construction sector had to find a way to make younger generations see the appeal of a career in the sector, he said. “It’s not all mud and boots, it’s increasingly more high-tech now.”
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Conor Gray, apprentice development manager at engineering contractor Mercury, said people were not applying to become electricians, plumbers and pipefitters at a time when they are sorely needed.
“The hours that we work, a lot of our projects will start at seven in the morning. I’d be perfectly honest, there’s an awful lot of young people that don’t like getting out of the bed for seven o’clock in the morning and that’s just a fact,” he told The Itish Times. “About a month ago we put out an advertisement across all the social media platforms and everywhere else looking for 35 people and we got about two applications.”
Mr Gray was speaking at an apprenticeship expo held in Tallaght stadium, west Dublin to mark the start of Construction Work and Skills week.
There was a skills shortage across the construction industry but particularly facing homebuilders, he said. “There’s an awful lot of traffic coming down from Northern Ireland, tradespeople coming down from the North that are probably back filling the shortage that we have down here,” he said.
Tom Parlon, head of the Construction Industry Federation, said he would be “slow to tar young people as lazy or unmotivated” and added other sectors such as hospitality were facing big challenges finding workers.
The construction sector had to find a way to make younger generations see the appeal of a career in the sector, he said. “It’s not all mud and boots, it’s increasingly more high-tech now.”
Construction jobs gap worsened by ‘reluctance to get out of bed for 7am’
Employer seeking to fill 35 roles ‘got about two applications’
