Opening the doors to Paradise
By Alan Bell, Paradise Site Manager, BAM Construct UK
This week we’ve thrown open the doors to Paradise and welcomed the public onto one of Birmingham’s largest development sites.
We are taking part in the construction industry’s national Open Doors event and showing people around both of the first Paradise buildings – One Chamberlain Square and Two Chamberlain Square.
It’s a brilliant opportunity to showcase our work and encourage people who wouldn’t normally get to see a major construction site to come down and take a look.
We are committed to operating in an open way that engages with the community around us and this week underlines that.
At the moment Birmingham is riding the crest of a wave of development activity and investment that will bring many millions of sq ft of new commercial space to the city. Paradise is the perfect example of this.
The total development comes in at almost 2 million sq ft of new commercial, retail and leisure space across 17 acres with up to ten new flagship buildings offering offices, shops, bars, cafés, restaurants and a four star hotel.
Once complete, the total investment in the project will be almost £1 billion.
Importantly, Paradise is generating opportunities for new jobs and skills that in turn creates more money for our local economy that then generates more demand for commercial space, creating an on-going circle of economic growth.
As well as the hundreds of construction jobs and apprenticeships we have already created ourselves, the project also gives major employers like PwC, who will moving into One Chamberlain Square, the chance to add hundreds of new staff to their existing teams.
Open Doors Week proudly shows the public the role both the construction and development sectors play in our city.
It’s also about how the construction industry is encouraging young people into thinking about career options, be that through a construction apprenticeship route or by training to become a civil engineer or architect.
For our own part at BAM, we have taken a series of positive steps with apprentices and in supporting young people across our workforce.
Construction is often held up as a barometer of general economic activity. The sector is worth £100 billion to UK GDP and supports 3 million jobs – 10% of all employment in the country.
The built environment is, and will remain, of paramount importance. Not all of us may be architectural experts, but nearly all of us instinctively know whether the buildings, infrastructure and homes around us work or not.
Historically, UK construction has been a key driver for growth. We are one of the world’s leading exporters of engineering and construction management and contracting, as well as being a major architectural and support services market.
British ingenuity and design has always counted in international marketplaces, and a career in the sector can take people far and wide. The global construction and development sector will be worth a staggering £10 trillion by 2025. Along with agriculture, energy and the defence industry, it’s one of the largest parts of the world economy.
And in our own city we can see the difference new developments can make: improving our environment, promoting sustainable transport, creating jobs and opportunities and putting money into communities.
To find out more about how to take forward a career in the construction industry, visit www.goconstruct.org/ and to find out more about the OpenDoors events taking place across the country this week visit opendoors.construction