THE NHBC Foundation is calling for an industry-wide campaign to boost the numbers of girls and young women in house building as research reveals just one in ten are interested in building and construction careers.

The research shows that while 37% of boys and young men are interested in building and construction, only 11% of girls and young women are interested.

The organisation is supporting Employment Minister Esther McVey’s #notjustforboys initiative encouraging more women to consider careers in male-dominated industries.

It plans to host a summit of leading industry representatives to discuss next steps to recruiting more young women.

The research found that the UK house-building industry needs to challenge misconceptions if it is to attract and recruit young people.

When asked about house building young people could often identify jobs in the trades such as bricklaying and plumbing but, apart from architecture, were largely unable to identify professional careers.

It found that the poor image of house building remains a challenge to recruitment with more than a quarter of young people citing it as a barrier. Other issues relate to a lack of information about careers and a perceived absence of professional opportunities.

But when young people were given positive, factual information about the wider benefits of house building, many felt much more interested in considering it as a career.

The NHBC Foundation report 'A career of choice: attracting talented young people into house building' contains a number of key recommendations, including: *the industry should prioritise the promotion of the careers available in house building, explaining the range of practical, technical, managerial and business improvement opportunities.

*the industry should, whenever possible, stress its flexible career paths.

*it should encourage the development of new positive narrative on the wider benefits of house building.

*more work is needed to promoter and champion the professional careers in house building.

Mike Quinton, NHBC’s chief executive, said: “House building provides exciting, varied and rewarding careers.

“We want to see more young people – including girls – actively considering a career in our industry to ensure we have a strong and balanced workforce to build the homes our country so desperately needs.

“Our research shows that if as an industry we do more to promote and champion the benefits, and challenge the misconceptions, then there are many roles in house building that are appealing to both young men and women.

“People often connect house building with hard physical work performed in all weathers. In reality, there’s a wide range of careers in house building that offer great career prospects, but many people are simply not aware of the interesting roles that exist.”