ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

To my bewilderment, when I came to the UK to pursue my post-graduate education in construction management, I found the public image of the industry at odds with my own perception. Here was an industry apparently full of dirty sites, broken machines and injured workers. And it was an industry portrayed as having a desperate skills crisis.

It all seemed a far cry from the experiences of my grandfather, the late Elhag Ahmed Abuzaid, a construction tycoon who between the 1950s and 1980s built almost 60% of Sudan’s infrastructure. Throughout a career spanning four decades, he partnered with many respected foreign companies, but the breakthrough came when his company collaborated with a British engineering design firm, Norman & Dawbarn (now Capita Norman Dawbarn), in the construction of the Sudan Second Education Project (SSEP), funded by the World Bank.

The five-year project was both a crucial learning experience for my grandfather’s firm and a turning point for the Sudanese construction industry. ‘Norman & Dawbarn was very meticulous, the drawings were specified to the smallest details, the resident engineers insisted materials had to be checked continuously at the Khartoum University’s ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ Research Institute Laboratory,’ my father recalled. ‘Even though it was the first experience for the company to use prefabricated and modular materials, the project phases were all finished on time. We learned quickly and on many occasions the resident engineer dirtied his hands with our foremen – they trained them while doing the job’. An achievement in the 1970s, the quality set by the British consultant is still a milestone for today’s educational projects.

I recently visited two of the SSEP polytechnics: handsomely proportioned they stand proud, fresh and futuristic and have a quality still unsurpassed by any recent education buildings in Sudan. SSEP was just one example of British service provision and decent business operations, but for the Sudanese construction industry it was evidence that ‘Britishness’ was intimately linked with perfectionism and professionalism.

Today there is less of this Britishness on show overseas. Activity by British construction firms, the once-upon-a-time ambassadors of industry, has declined, thanks to a fluctuating global economy coupled with sweeping corruption and political risk in developing countries. The government can reverse this decline, and help British contractors win work, by facilitating secure funding and transparent dealings jointly with multilateral development agencies and British embassies.

It did not take me too long to discover the reality of the British construction industry – the bad public image is built on a myth. I’ve been researching industry competitiveness since 2005 and am assured that such negativity is unjust and is mainly founded on ignorance. Few are aware of the nature, characteristics and achievements of the industry today or throughout history. That’s something that as professionals we can all help to change.

Unfortunately, the skills crisis is real. But perhaps it’s one that could be addressed simultaneously with a more positive rebranding of the industry. Career seekers and the younger generations are more attracted to businesses with more appealing workplace environments, such as the financial and IT sectors. But were it not for an innovative construction industry, the intelligent buildings and sleek structures that host these tempting businesses wouldn’t even be built. The achievements of the construction industry are, quite simply, taken for granted. We need to approach the younger generations confidently and explain to them how exciting and important the construction industry is in shaping people’s lives.

Along with my father and grandfather, it is something I was always aware of in Sudan.

Tomorrow’s people: Ghada Abuzaid is a qualified architect and is currently pursuing her PhD in Construction Management at the University of Reading