Today's special episode is recorded live in Jamie Oliver's new restaurant in Covent Garden London as we return to the tricky, but absolutely crucial issue of skills and the need to lever more of the best talent from schools into the infrastructure, construction and building sector. 

Now, anyone who has ever attended an industry conference recently and, I dare I say it, anyone that's ever listened to an industry podcaster lately, will be very aware that the deficit of skills in this sector is presenting a real risk to the ability to deliver our ambition for accelerating investment in the industry and boosting growth and improving the living standards across the UK. 

And add to that, the reality that technology is set to transform the way we work, underlines the reality that we have to change to make sure that the brightest minds really do good into the sector. 

It's a huge challenge. And so who better to talk to than Alison Watson, president of the Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors, and founder of the Class of Your Own initiative, which, as we heard in Episode Six, way back in March 2023 is a program that is successfully embedding its Design Engineer Construct agenda into the school curriculum and radically increasing the number of students actually making it into the industry.

But not fast enough. Which is why Alison joins me today in Jamie Oliver's lovely new restaurant in Covent Garden, London, as she prepares to launch a new initiative that she hopes could actually start to change the way the sector approaches its support for schools.

The episode also includes a chat with RIBA president-elect Chris Williamson (his design-a-restaurant advice – “listen your clients”) and past winners of the original Design a Restaurant competition John Haylett BSc (Hons) NECReg and Sam Boone who both underline the value of schools/industry competitions when it came to shaping and driving their own careers in the built environment.

Resources
Design a restaurant with Jamie Oliver
Class of Your Own website
Design Engineer Construct website