Hosted by Bishop Burton College, and led by Hull-based construction and maintenance company, Hobson & Porter, the annual ‘Foundations Live’ event serves as a professional business networking and trade show, alongside an interactive careers fair for people of all ages to explore employment opportunities in construction.

The dual-purpose event also aims to celebrate and centralise the best bits of Hobson & Porter’s year-long Foundations scheme – a unique initiative that aims to help create a sustainable workforce for the construction industry by educating, developing, and upskilling the workforce of the future across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire in response to an ever-present skills shortage.  

Formalised in 2012, the scheme raises awareness of career opportunities in the construction industry through practical engagement to demonstrate the real-life application of curriculum topics. Alignment with the academic calendar also provides employment links for students in secondary, further, and higher education, who are seeking to make informed decisions about their futures or take their first steps into industry. It also assists adult learners, including those seeking to retrain, by helping them to access training and employment opportunities. 

Among those benefitting from this year’s show were a group of Year 11 students from Withernsea High School. Accompanying them was Careers Leader, Viki Foster, who said: “The Foundations Live event was a great interactive way to show our students the different careers involved within the construction industry. The students really enjoyed the practical nature of the event and many said that they may now consider a career within construction.

It is so important to give students these opportunities to learn more about different sectors and to address some of the stereotypes surrounding them. We would like to thank Hobson & Porter and all of the representatives for organising a fantastic event for the Yorkshire and Humber region.”

Foundations Live is the result of the collaborative and ongoing working relationship between Hobson & Porter, Jewson, Jewson Partnership Solutions and Bishop Burton College. They are also partnered by the CITB (Construction Industry Training Board), who provide information about grants and fundraising to support the industry in developing the future workforce, including support for apprenticeships.

The event regularly hosts over 70 trade exhibitors and provides a platform for attendees, including 500 students from across the region, to meet and network with over 200 industry professionals. For further information about Hobson & Porter’s Foundations Live event and associated scheme, please visit: www.foundationslive.co.uk