Digital construction: drive the future, achieve your dream

Dr Claire Handby, a management consultant with 25 years’ experience in the industry and a Digital Construction Awards judge, said: “There is a space for anybody in digital construction. I’ve never seen the industry so much more focused on what you do on the inside. It’s what you understand about your skills, your qualifications, your attitude and how you get on the front foot to understand the opportunities that are here. You can realise your dreams within this sector, and I do not say that easily. It is very exciting. It’s transformational. It’s a moment for a generation.”

Dr Ben Jowett, head of digital transformation at SES Engineering Services, emphasised how digital construction’s diversity will help to break down the wider industry’s traditional siloes. He said: “One of the things that we continuously talk about within our business, which is relevant to the whole industry, is that the skills that we’re going to need for the future don’t really exist off the shelf.

“And that’s kind of reflected in how we’re approaching our digital team within SES: two-thirds of the team have come through organic retention and pivoting from a different background – design management or commercial management, for example. We’re 50% male, 50% female as a team, and really well balanced in terms of diversity and inclusion. And that is because the career in digital is a meaningful one; it doesn’t really have boundaries, and people are going to have to become multifunctional and operate horizontally across businesses, rather than being vertical specialists.

“You look at most of the curriculum that’s geared up to support industry at the moment: it’s very vertical and siloed – you’re trying to be a QS, you’re trying to be a design manager, you’re trying to be a site manager. Through digital, those boundaries will be eroded. That’s the future that we’re anticipating.”

Jane Goodman, sustainability consultant at iDEA, highlighted diversity’s role. “We need a lot of diversity to get innovation in the digital space,” she said. “We took on an apprentice who didn’t leave school because he used to game at home, and he’s one of our best developers now. We can progress all kinds of people from different backgrounds.”