Cultural Issues Affecting Black and Minority Ethnic Entry in the UK Construction Industry.

The UK construction industry's output is the second largest within the European Union and is the country's largest employer. Within the UK, over two million people work in this sector and the latest national statistics predict a continued expansive growth as far as the year 2011. However, the construction industry is experiencing serious skills shortages and tends to lack an ethnic diversity of workers. Recent research has shown that although Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students in the UK are relatively well represented within most of the built environment disciplines within higher education (HE), very few ethnic minority graduates are actually entering the industry compared to their White counterparts. The majority of employers in the industry are facing ongoing recruitment difficulties and this increased loss of BME graduates exacerbates the skills gap. It can be stated that research into these issues within this sector is limited, especially with regards to individual, cultural and ethnic based factors. The European Social Funded BME in Construction project is attempting to identify the potential barriers and enablers (including culture) that contribute to the under-representation of BMEs within the construction industry. This paper outlines the findings from Company Directors, Human Resources Managers and employees that identify the potential cultural barriers that lead to the under-representation of BMEs within the UK construction industry. This paper concludes by putting forward a series of recommendations aimed at HE and the UK construction industry to facilitate the entry of BMEs within the industry and identifies areas of further and expanded research that are required over the longer term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]