Commercial Construction Bucks the National Building Trend

'The commercial construction sector is booming and the only shortage it faces is skilled workers to deliver the busy orders that have been placed with companies’.

That's the New Year prediction from cladding and curtain walling expert, English Architectural Glazing. Despite messages of an economic downturn in the housing construction and selling markets, the commercial sector is seeing full order books for 2008.

Edward Whipp (pictured), Pre-Construction Director for EAG said: ‘With so many regeneration projections in the UK from town centres to large private and public sector projects, commercial construction is in a boom time. We have a full 2008 order book of £25m, and are already looking at large schemes with repeat clients for 2009. Only when we have secured the right resources in terms of design, project management and site personnel will we be looking to expand on that figure.’

Suffolk based EAG is working on a large number of schemes ranging from the town centre regeneration of High Wycombe to the Open University in Milton Keynes to major hospital projects including St. Barts in London.

Edward Whipp continued: ‘The only real shortage our industry faces is enough skilled workers, both in the factory and on site, to deliver our contracts. We have taken the necessary precautions at EAG and we employ a number of people from other parts of the EU who are trained, qualified and skilled in their various disciplines and are hard workers’.

‘It does mean that we need more people to be trained and we are calling on the Government to do more to encourage young school leavers onto training schemes particularly on the technical, engineering and design side of our industry’.

EAG is also calling on its own industry to do more to attract young people into commercial construction and ensure people see it as a long term, rewarding career. EAG sends members of its senior management team into schools to talk to students about the advantages of working in the sector, particularly in computer aided design. The company also puts its trainees through degree and diploma courses, investing heavily in its workers.

Web: http://www.eag.uk.com