Go Construct

We partnered with Go Construct – a Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) platform providing resources for anyone looking for a career in the construction and built environment sector – to find ways to encourage young people to consider a career in construction.

The brief required an understanding of young people’s career aspirations, and foundational research centered on:

• Exploring young people’s decision-making journeys into careers.
• Understanding young people’s needs at different stages.
• Exploring what motivates and influences young people’s career choices.
• Understanding where young people see messages about careers.

The quantitative and qualitative research data highlighted some key challenges around perceptions: both young people and their parents have negative perceptions of the culture in construction. But it also highlighted solutions:

1. The majority of new recruits to construction have a role model within the industry – it’s usually a parent, family member, or someone they know. In other words, relatable role models are key to generating interest.
2. Young people are heavily influenced by their parents – with 33% saying they could be put off a job by their parents, and 1 in 3 believing that their parents would disapprove of a construction career!

Go Construct was already playing an educational role: but what this insight highlighted, was that this information needed to come from peers (role models) and parents, not the organisation. It highlighted the need for authentic voices – that people relate to people – in the mediums the demographic consumed, and on the platforms they frequent.

We adopted an ambassador/partner content strategy:

• Using construction industry role models that were relevant in age.
• Focussing activity on native platforms for this demographic (taking Go Construct onto TikTok, as well as adding Instagram Reels).
• Dispelling myths and educating through real stories, told authentically.
• Partnering with companies to champion diversity in construction.
• Partnering with companies on campaigns to raise awareness on national calendar days, including Results Day and National Apprenticeship Week. 

On Instagram, since August 2022, follower growth has increased by 16%, with over 2,406,732 impressions. The average Instagram post engagement has increased 9x, with a rate of 3.7% far exceeding the 2.33% benchmark in education.

Go Construct’s TikTok audience grew by 2.5k followers in under 72 hours. Since its August 2022 launch, it’s gained 4K followers, with viral posts taking it to over 1.2 million organic video views.

TikTok partnership strategy results: 

• National Apprenticeship Week is a key calendar moment to promote the opportunities in the sector, and signpost Go Construct as the place to go to discover careers in construction. Our National Apprenticeship Week paid campaign resulted in 1.6m impressions, over 21K website clicks, and a CPC of 0.18p. TikTok recognised the campaign as one of their top-performing campaigns – and it is now featured in their ads library as an inspirational example for other brands.