Our future workforce

How important are people to the Just Transition?

Ok, I know, but sometimes it’s good to ask the stupid questions. Because we need to think of people as more than a workforce. Everybody is affected by the built environment and so is a stakeholder who will be affected by, and can help deliver, change. Nobody is just an economic unit and we won’t make effective change if we don’t see the whole picture. How do we define our intent for inclusion’s role the Just Transition?

So let’s talk about ‘people’ with roles to play in transforming the built environment – people in hard hats, people in factories, offices, managing facilities, maintaining places, procurers, designers, communities, volunteers, neighbours, politicians and public officials. What is their transition and how do we enable it? Whose roles have not yet even been created? What will ‘the workforce’ of 2045 look like and how do we bring those people forward?

If our materials transition is in part about improving occupant heath through healthier buildings, then our people strategy has to be about occupational health, physical & mental, by healthier processes. Why are young men in construction 3 times more likely than average to die buy suicide, already most common cause for young men? How can we reverse that?  How do we get to a culture of health across construction beyond physical safety? Why are there so few female apprentices? How do we remove the cultural barriers to people engaging in construction?

Part of the dynamic environment over the next 20 years will be the adoption of A.I. and robotics. Will that answer the workforce shortage? As machines become better machines, how do we balance that by giving people better people skills? What are the skills we need to invest in alongside our investment in technology? What do we need to train people to do and who trains the trainers? And how do we define sector skills to include everyone?

Will pre-fabrication open the door to more inclusive and flexible working practices? Will age-friendly workplaces parallel demographic change and reduce the loss of experience through retirement? Can community procurement deliver culture change, technical effectiveness and community wealth-building? Who defines skills needs beyond the ask of existing ‘employers’? Who is leading this and how does it map across the geographic diversity of Scotland?

Funded By

Videos from the event

These are two of a series of films documenting 5 days of Conversations by 183 people in early 2024 about climate change, nature depletion and how the Just Transition in the Scottish Built Environment and Construction sector is responding.

This first film looks at the kinds of jobs that we will do in the future, how we attract people and re-train in new skills as the foundation of sector Transition. In this film you hear from Paul Zealey of Skills Development Scotland, Rona Bisset an architecture student, Stevie Dillon of UNITE, Kenny McAllister of Community Trades Hub, Alex McLaren of Heriot Watt University, and many others.

This second film looks at how we might act on the built environment if we recognise climate change as a public health emergency fostered by a culture of Patriarchy, but where action can save thousands of lives and transform the health and opportunities of our whole nation. In this film you hear from Robert Toomey of RICS, Eryn Browning of Fuel Poverty Action, David Seel of Edinburgh University, Stevie Dillon of Unite, Laura Banks of Women in Property, Kirsty Connel-Skinner of HCI Skills Gateway among many others.

You can show this film in your organisation to start a discussion about the challenges we face and how we can change the way we live, work and build to deliver the Just Transition by 2045. Please post comments and share.

About the event

Past Event Date: Wednesday 21st February 2024

How big an impediment to a Just Transition is gender inequality? Would promoting women to positions of power accelerate change because they are less vested in the status quo as well as being better-informed decision-makers? 

Is social and technological change coming inevitably, so we shouldn’t worry about it and we really need just to focus on cutting carbon emissions because that is the species level threat, or is social justice a prerequisite to a successful change process? 

To give us your input, or just for more information, please email BigConversation@seda.uk.net

This page will be periodically updated when further information for the event becomes available.