When young people consider their career path, all too often we hear construction being ruled out because they don’t want to be outside all day, lifting heavy materials or working in a physically demanding role. But a career in construction doesn’t always mean getting your hands dirty, in fact, it calls for a lot of creativity.

Whether designing buildings, drawing up site plans, or deciding on cladding requirements, there are a variety of roles to choose from, and they all play an equally important part in achieving the end goal.

In my experience, creativity becomes more limited as students move through the education system. They get caught up in the details and technicalities, and imagination gets left at the door. While we can’t always make our Barbie Dreamhouses come to life, creative thinking is an essential part of construction.

To help reignite this creative spark, we’ve partnered with Powering Futures, a skills-based initiative partially funded by HCI Skills Gateway. The programme slots into the secondary school curriculum to give students the tools to develop their own learning and expand their team building, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Businesses partner with groups of students and set them a real-world challenge to solve. In one instance, Scottish Water wanted to deepen their young workforce’s understanding of the sustainability aspect of the organisation. Through Powering Futures, they tasked students with creating a bespoke programme, including live and online events and presentations, which allowed students to apply their skills while building their confidence in a professional setting.

Not only do the workshops give students the chance to learn about career opportunities, but they also help them to discover more about how their personality traits translate to their style of working, becoming familiar with their strengths and putting them to full use.

They might be an analyst, a motivator, or maybe even more of a cynic. But whatever traits they carry, by understanding their own tendencies, working preferences and abilities, they can form a plan with their teachers that will put them on the best path forward. The programme gives them a sense of empowerment in knowing they can kickstart their careers using the skills they already have, in case the traditional path of obtaining a degree before joining the workforce isn’t a good fit for them.

Over the next year, Powering Futures is hoping to work with more than 2,000 students and 200 teachers with the help of organisations across the country. Becoming involved with the initiative gives businesses the chance to tap into creative solutions to existing issues, but also provides early access to the talent pool. And this will be greatly welcomed across the industry, given the skills gap is a resounding concern.

We need to reach students at an early age and help them unlock their creative potential. If we can equip teachers with the ready-made materials to encourage their students, we can focus on harnessing creativity at an early age and helping young people to realise how the skills they already have can be used successfully in their construction careers. Once we have these foundations in place, we can create a more accessible, diverse and sustainable workforce.

Kenny Leitch, is Principal Investigator at HCI Skills Gateway and Associate Professor at Edinburgh Napier University

Agenda is a column for outside contributors. Contact: agenda@theherald.co.uk