By Louise Eyre, Operations Director at UKREiiF

A primary aim for the team here at UKREiiF has always been to make it more than an event, extending the impact the forum has to create a positive impact on both the local community and the wider industry.

One key challenge the industry has is the skills gap, and in 2024 we’re enhancing the activity we’re going to reach students at high school, college, and university levels, in addition to early career professionals. Here’s a bit of an overview of what we’re planning to do:

Ahead Partnership Programme: Engaging Young People

In the 4–8 weeks before UKREiiF, we are looking to engage with local high schools and colleges to promote all aspects of our industry to 14- to 18-year-olds. We’re keen to highlight the role our industry plays in the design and development of our towns and cities to inspire the next generation of talent to enter the industry, and this age group is at a crucial moment in determining their future career paths.

We are set to work with Ahead Partnership, a not-for-profit social enterprise that creates unique business partnerships and programmes that connect young people to opportunities. Their work enables employers to tackle skills, diversity, and inclusivity challenges by playing an active role in supporting and developing young talent.

We will do this engagement via…

  1. Interactive Question Time Style Panels: at a number of schools to reach 1,600 students, with a diverse mix of people from different areas of the built environment making up the panels.
  2. Workplace visits: bringing young students to the offices and on-site visits to highlight a working day in the industry with networking and a have-a-go task
  3. Speed networking: linking with colleges and sixth forms to connect students to the region’s employers, both large and SME to introduce them to potential routes to a career
  4. Legacy Digital Assets: the creation of video and digital assets that can be utilised nationally, focusing on all different areas of the built environment. The assets will be distributed throughout numerous routes and incorporated into training programmes and ongoing outreach programmes with a reach of 10,000–20,000 students.

Regeneration Brainery: Inspiring the Next Generation

As our Charity Partner, Regeneration Brainery is set to feature heavily at UKREiiF. They will take over what was effectively the D&I Pavilion in 2023, with a designated area to host their own events, activities, and content.

For those who don’t know Regeneration Brainery (they’re amazing; look them up!), they inspire the next generation of bright young minds through numerous means, including one-day and weeklong bootcamps for 14- to 21-year-olds to provide real insight into the industry through interactive workshops, visits to exciting projects, proper hands-on work experience, and networking opportunities.

We will be working with them to ensure their students and alumni feature heavily at UKREiiF and benefit from the facilitation and connections we can make.

Pre-UKREiiF Early Careers Activity

We are set to have a number of events taking place in the lead-up to UKREiiF; in some cases, we will be partnering with organisations like YEP (Young Entrepreneurs in Property), Leeds Society of Architects, Leeds University, Leeds College of Building, and Leeds Junior Lawyers Division, amongst others.

These events will take many forms, but some of them will include:

  • Networking training will enable early career professionals to be more comfortable in networking environments, which will be ample at UKREiiF.
  • What to expect from UKREiiF sessions where we give insight to those who are new to the event on how to navigate the site, detail the fringe programme, and what to expect or the best places to go
  • Panel discussions personalised for the target market

These are just a few things we are doing to push the NextGen agenda at UKREiiF, whether it be for high school students who are deciding on their future or for early career professionals who’ve recently made a switch to the industry.

All this pre-UKREiiF activity is set to enhance the UKREiiF experience and continue our bid to go above and beyond just being a three-day event.

Please contact the marketing team at [email protected] if you have any questions or would like to get involved in any of the above activities.

By Louise Eyre, Operations Director at UKREiiF