Build in Digital’s latest micro-conference brought together industry experts to explore technology’s impact on skills, and how the sector can nurture the construction workforce of tomorrow
The construction industry has long faced a significant skills gap, but it’s not just traditional hands-on expertise that’s lacking; as the sector modernises, technology makes its own demands, too.
New tools, need new skills; sometimes in combination with the skills that went before. New roles now demand digital fluency as well as the ‘analogue’ skills required of transforming a building site into a finished – and polished – part of the built environment.
Inevitably, then, the workforce of the future will not only need foundational construction skills but also the capability to work with cutting-edge, data-driven tools and platforms.
If it’s any consolation, it’s an industry-wide issue. Indeed, the shift to a digital skill-set is a societal journey, affecting just about every sector. So, nobody is facing this alone; nor do they have to.
All of this, of course, was the topic of conversation at Build in Digital‘s most recent micro-conference, titled aptly enough: Skills & Training – Mind the Digital Skills Gap.
As ever the micro-conference drew on the expertise of the sector, with three keynote speakers, plus a host of engaged guests from across construction. They proved an attentive audience, quick with questions, and game for a solid chat in the networking breakout sessions.
Andrew Johnson, associate and training lead at Okana (formerly the BIM Academy), got proceedings underway with his presentation. He was followed by fellow guest speakers, Dr Noha Saleeb, associate professor in creative technologies and construction at the University of Middlesex; and James Bishop, national digital technology manager at SES.
Johnson titled his presentation ‘From Data to Impact’, summarising in essence some of the core aspects of what digital skills are all about. During his talk, he set out to explore where we’ve been in the digital journey, where we are now, and where the future will take us. A key part of his focus was with BIM training specifically, and training more generally, within the construction industry as a whole.
There are challenges in this digital journey, of course. One such is learning the evolution of data from – well, it’s raw state – to information; essentially the useful insights and details the data provides once it’s been processed appropriately.
He asked some hardly rhetorical questions; is there such a thing as too much information; too much data? Do we risk becoming overwhelmed by the sheer wealth of it, or are we well-placed to ensure we have the systems and processes – and the concomitant skills – to manage it?
As he pointed out, though, training is usually standardised; ‘one size fits all’. This may not be appropriate for everyone, or even relevant, as individuals or as businesses. Given this, Johnson suggested it was best to employ an ‘adaptive learning model’
By way of explanation, Johnson used the model Okana uses; one in which you can stop the training, ask questions, and even use a different language by using an AI system. In Okana’s case, it is Agentic AI.
Following this, he went on to talk about the human-AI synergy they find this platform provides. Eventually, he thinks, in the future we will end up with the ‘impact’ on the individual, rather than just a collection of data.
Watch Andrew Johnson’s presentation
Dr Noha Saleeb talked about the training and digital skills gap in the wider sense of the word, exploring how the global challenges could impact the future of learning. She touched upon our increasing reliance on technology, and the implications in this for training.
Moving on, she discussed digital skills training and the gaps that exist in this, picking up a point from Johnson about not having a ‘one size fits all’ approach to training and learning.
She went on to discuss some of the issues around melding traditional and digital construction skills, asking for instance, how do you use machine learning in your construction site? Going further, she challenged the audience to think about the skills they actually need. Digital skills is a broad ‘catch-all’ after all; universally needed, for sure, but what subset best fit particular industries is a point worth pondering.
Saleeb went on to discuss a learning project for students at Middlesex University, and how this was helping them gain practical experience. They were asked to create a digital twin of heritage buildings in Egypt. This, she explained, engaged the students in the outcomes of the project in real-time. As such, they were granted some real-experience and developed the skills they needed along the way.
In the course of the exercise, not only were practical skills and training used, but it offered a new way of learning, without exams, that really opens the potential for the next generation of graduates.
Watch Dr Noha Saleeb’s presentation
James Bishop, the event’s final guest speaker, began by explaining a little bit about his role at SES. Essentially, he’s there to bring technology into the construction industry; a new role, which just shows how innovations are making themselves felt across society and industry.
Looking at the digital skills gap in the construction workplace, he took an overview of where he sits and how technology roles are perceived, along with what is involved in nurturing the adoption of new technologies.
Bishop explained that it’s not about taking the technology and trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist; it’s about identifying a real problem, and then creating a solution using the tech that’s available. He used the example of Uber’s impact on the taxi business; something similar could be done in construction, he suggested.
As it is, he went on to say that the industry is perhaps failing to work smarter. That needs to change, as does perceptions within – and about – the industry. By showing the benefits of the technology, it almost does the work for you, and helps nurture a change in a business’s culture.
Moving on, Bishop talked about overcoming barriers and went on to explain his steps to success. It starts, he said, with changing perceptions at the grass roots, and then this expands to be adopted across a business.
At the end of the day, one might infer, technology is about people; it’s easy to forget that.
Watch James Bishop’s presentation
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