The Maddie Rose Campaign shines a spotlight on the huge potential for young people to develop rewarding and fulfilling careers within the construction industry, more specifically, the builders merchants and materials manufacturing sectors. The campaign was a tribute set up in memory of Maddie Rose Hollamby, a young marketing executive in the Travis Perkins Group, who was passionate about promoting the industry she so loved to other young people. The Campaign brings together a wide range of people working across the merchanting and materials manufacturing sectors, all determined to promote the industry to young people, and, by doing so, honouring Maddie’s memory.
The Hidden Careers Initiative lifts the lid on the huge range of career paths in the construction industry, some of them less obvious than others. By going into schools and colleges to engage with young people just starting to think about their career options, the Initiative challenges the stereotypes surrounding jobs in the construction and the built environment and to inspire the next generation entering the world of work. From marketing to accounting, engineering to transport, CAD Design to selling, the industry has a huge variety of potential exciting career paths. Small groups of students are asked to guess the varied careers of volunteer industry professionals, by asking them only yes or no questions, after which the volunteers talk about their roles and their own career pathways. Finding out about these types of roles challenges people’s perception that all work in the construction industry is dirty, male dominated and involves physical labour.