Is aspiration killing construction? That feels like an absurd question. Aspiration is good, isn’t it? But as you’re about to hear, aspiration isn’t just elevation. Sometimes it’s distraction. We praise ambition, yet send it packing off to careers that glitter, careers that feel alive on a mobile phone or computer screen.
Meanwhile, jobs involving dirty hands and dirty boots remain unseen. And because of that, a vital industry fades from view. And fades from possibility.
Computer, phone, TV and movie screens are filled with images showing the allure of glamorous careers – footballers, singers, YouTubers, online influencers. But demolition and construction? These roles and these industries are invisible, hard to frame, lacking narrative.
When you can’t see it, you can’t aspire to it. And when you do occasionally see it, it’s hardly aspirational, is it?
Platforms like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok are filled with memes of demolition and construction gone awry. On site disasters. Machines turning over. People being hurt. Or displaying the kind of “banter” that generally involves someone being humiliated by his colleagues.
On the rare occasions a young person does happen upon some form of demolition or construction content, it is likely to be enough to put them off for life.
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