Essential skills for the homes we need to build

The UK government has set a target of building 1.5 million new homes in the next five years. This is a stretching target that will require the construction industry to adopt innovative practices – many of them digital. While there are certainly challenges attracting young people into construction and a lack of traditional tradespeople, some of our existing technical professionals face challenges adapting to the new digital opportunities.

A digital revolution is underway. 

• BIM, robotics, AI, simulation tools and 3D printing are making construction quicker, cheaper, more accurate and less wasteful. 
• Technologies enabling us to gather, capture and share vast amounts of data are helping us better understand issues, make more informed decisions, learn and move forward, so we can design out risks. 
• Simulation tools and modelling are developing at pace, bringing a gamification-style approach to creating virtual assets. Such tools can accurately predict how buildings will be affected by environmental changes and occupational patterns. 
• In the future, building management systems will accurately manage operational systems and maintenance schedules, ensuring the safety and wellbeing of people in the buildings. 

The new digital approach is creating a pathway to sustainable construction, engineering out errors and inefficiencies. 

The government has estimated the UK needs an extra 60,000 construction workers by 2029 to meet the demand for building new housing, roads, rail and energy infrastructure. To enable this, the government has announced £600m worth of investment to train these new entrants. But this investment is focused on traditional trades such as bricklayers or electricians and seems to miss the need for training technical professionals and managers in digital skills. 

For some professionals the opportunity to grow into the digital arena is exciting, but for many there can be concern and reluctance as they struggle to grasp the changing technologies including coding, programming and familiarisation with digital platforms. It can be daunting trying to keep track of the ‘now’, let alone planning what’s needed in the future. 

Professionals need support to embrace the opportunities, grow with the technologies and contribute their vast knowledge and experience. We should create training that supports and upskills our existing talent and help people build on their skills, plus encourage digitally confident team members to guide their more experienced colleagues. Reverse mentoring arrangements are successfully used to enable intergenerational learning in areas like social media, technology, and diversity and inclusion. 

We need training and upskilling programmes that are: 

• Relevant to industry needs; it is important we follow the guidance in the Competency Frameworks. 
• Focused on key knowledge, skills and behavioural needs, and delivered in a consistent way to ensure proficiency is achieved across the industry. 
• Delivered in a variety of ways that allow access to materials at a time and location that suits busy schedules. 
• An investment opportunity that helps to retain existing talent by facilitating skilled professionals to achieve more from the digital advances and enjoy a more rewarding career path. 

The skills gap provides an opportunity to embrace the challenges, and through focused, accessible upskilling and mentoring programmes we can develop a resilient and forward-thinking workforce that will deliver the results we need.

This article first appeared in RICS Modus (June 2025).