Fit out specialist Mivan has represented Northern Ireland as the only local company invited to the first Future Innovation Group (FIG) meeting.

The firm attended the first two-day meeting of the FIG in Hull, with over 50 young people in attendance, offering views, experiences, and suggestions to improve the construction industry's ability to attract young talent.

A broad spectrum of young people from across various disciplines of construction were split into groups for engaging round table discussions. This allowed a large range of questions to be discussed and provided a diverse range of views.

Topics included, attracting young people to construction, retaining the best young talent, changing the perceptions of construction industry, how best to move to a digital first industry driven by data, and how to encourage innovation.

The outcome of discussions highlighted that construction is exciting but young people have a very different perception of the industry. That needs to change, and some suggestions included involvement in education from primary school right through to university level. Other suggestions included creating student programmes or work experience to demonstrate to students what a day in the industry really looks like.

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The discussion about innovation focussed in on sharing of data or interestingly the lack of sharing of data in the construction industry. This problem is driven by commercial sensitivities and the competitive nature of the industry. It was the view that to encourage data sharing, an independent body should be created to identify how data could be shared and then create an industry standard accreditation. It was also recognised to help improve innovation, investment in new technologies was needed. The days of hard copies and manual procedures are coming to an end. It is believed that the sharing of data and investment in new technologies would bring a plethora of benefits such as better planning, more accurate site information, live site information, logistic planning, site movements, and ultimately saving time, energy, and cost.

John Cunningham, CEO, commented: "Construction is exciting, I always knew it was. I am delighted Mivan have participated in the Future Innovation Group (FIG) meeting and look forward to hearing the outcomes of the actions. I must commend all companies involved but especially Morgan Sindall and Pagabo for being such a driving force behind this initiative. Also, credit to all the young people involved, the feedback I have received is excellent and I am confident the future of construction is bright."