The company, which is currently delivering an affordable housing site in Crieff for Hillcrest Homes, partnered up with Crieff High School, Developing the Young Workforce (DYW), Perth College UHI, Scottish Building Federation (SBF), Scottish Building Apprenticeship and Training Council (SBATC) and Hillcrest Homes to deliver the event.

The event covered topics such as health and safety; apprenticeships and careers in construction as well as a range of practical demonstrations to get the pupils involved. The event also gave pupils the opportunity to ask questions to Hadden Group staff across all areas of the business including business development; pre-construction; buying, estimating, quantity surveying & customer care.

Hadden Group’s human resource manager, Amanda Cramb, took the lead on organising the event.

She said: “The construction industry is open to a lot of misconceptions and we are passionate about playing our part to educate young people on the varied careers and opportunities available in construction. We’re proud to be holding the inaugural event in Crieff, where Hadden Group was established in 1992, with a view to rolling the format out to other schools as part of our community engagement programme.”

Hadden Group’s partners also came along to present with talks from Perth College UHI and the Scottish Building Apprenticeship and Training Council. The presentations covered the routes into the construction industry, their organisations roles within the industry along with question and answer sessions.

Hadden also showcased what it is like to work in the construction industry with short presentations from staff in architecture; buying; finance & administration; quantity surveying; site management; human resources; business development and estimating. These presentations covered their role within the industry and their career pathway. 

Scott Hadden, chairman, Hadden Group, added: “We hosted this event to inspire and encourage our construction workforce of the future and I’m sure this Construction Insight event has inspired more young people to consider a rewarding career in construction.”

David Macluskey, deputy head teacher at Crieff High School, said: “This has been a life changing event at our school. Thank you so much Hadden Group for your time and expertise. We are in your debt.

“The Hadden Group team are pleased with how successful their event was at Crieff High School and are looking to roll this out to other schools across Scotland to help address the acute skills shortage and highlight the attractive opportunities the construction industry has to offer.”