When I Grow Up - Children's Book

Our brief was simple – inspire as many bright young minds as we can to consider a career in construction.

The construction industry is facing its worst ever skills crisis, so it’s vital that we work hard now to inspire future generations of construction workers at every level.

As part of our sustainability plan we’ve set ourselves some big targets, committing to engage with at least 5,000 children by 2025. As part of these efforts we have written our first ever children’s story book.

‘When I Grow Up’ aims to inspire young people around the world of work and encourage them to consider the construction industry.

The book takes them through the journey of twins Harry and Amy, who are considering their future careers as part of their school careers day competition. The story covers a range of engineering activities and demonstrates to children that without the hard work of those in the construction industry, many other roles would not be made possible.

We wrote the book ourselves taking inspiration from leading children’s authors and developed a story which captures the children’s imagination through its beautiful flowing rhyming verse. We created a diverse set of relatable characters to inspire and motivate as many different children as possible.

We know that children can build a whole world of understanding from stories and that is why we chose the book as our way to deliver on our brief from the company board.

The book is being given away free of charge and we have engaged a number of schools and charities to maximise its reach. Teachers have described the book as “innovative, entertaining and absorbing”

Recognition with a Muse award would be a fantastic start for our project which aims to inspire hearts and minds of the next generation. We hope our creativity captures and motivates them to consider a career in construction and the book is the start of a children’s brand which will grow into something much bigger.