James Hardie encourages young Aussies to consider careers in construction in new ‘The Trade Off’ campaign

Australian-founded building materials company James Hardie has launched a new initiative aiming to encourage more young Australians to consider careers in trade. This campaign comes amidst ambitious targets set by the National Housing Accord that require 274,000 new homes to be built per year until 2029, a task that will necessitate an additional 116,000 housing construction workers by 2030.

Created in collaboration with the Parramatta Eels with production support from Weber Shandwick and Banter, James Hardie’s campaign ‘The Trade Off’, aims to attract more entrants into carpentry by shining a light on construction career pathways.

Hosted by veteran renovation master, Scott Cam, The Trade Off sees a team of three past and present Eels players pitted against a James Hardie-backed team of trade professionals and apprentices in a special carpentry-based challenge. Notably, the Eels team comprises qualified carpenter and ex-NRL player (Andrew Davey) and two players currently undertaking carpentry apprenticeships (Araz Nanva and Arthur Miller-Stephen), highlighting the viability of trade qualifications as personal development areas.

In addition to launching The Trade Off to highlight the values and opportunities afforded to young Australians by a career in the trades, James Hardie is also taking to the schools of Western Sydney on a speaking tour to directly engage with students. The multi-school tour features Q&A sessions with Eels players and career case studies, giving students as much clarity around career pathways in construction as possible. James Hardie will also be offering 20 students at each school the company visits a fully-funded white card, with the provision of this compulsory worksite credential eliminating one of the financial burdens new workers are faced with and helping them to get started on their journey towards becoming qualified to be on job sites.

The Parramatta Eels’ J’Maine Hopgood completed his carpentry qualifications while playing NRL and is a strong advocate for trade careers. “As grateful as I am for my NRL career, it’s important to remember that footy doesn’t last forever. I love working with my hands and wanted to pick up some skills that would let me do that”, said Hopgood. “I hope that more kids will be inspired by this to take up a trade.”

The commitment to inspiring local school leavers through the Trade Off content and local school visits is complemented with an offer to fund white cards, helping to inspire and educate the next generation of residential construction tradespeople.

The building materials company has also recently completed a pilot program with TAFE NSW to improve education on fibre cement cladding installation, equipping campuses with Hardie™ fibre cement products, power tools, PPE and providing material-specific training for TAFE educators.

“Australia has very ambitious targets to build more houses. Increasing the number of tradespeople we have available will be critical to helping the industry meet demand. As an industry leader, we recognise we need to be part of the solution”, said John Arneil, APAC President at James Hardie.

“There will need to be a concerted effort across industry, education and government to address the labour shortage in a meaningful way. We are proud to be providing opportunities for members of our local communities in Western Sydney to not only enter construction trades, but also understand the value that these careers can add to their lives.”

This initiative from James Hardie launches in conjunction with the publication of a whitepaper detailing the current state of the residential construction industry. The whitepaper provides a clear snapshot of the current state of trade availability in the construction industry as Australia strives to make up an annual shortfall of 274,000 homes under the National Housing Accord, identifying a strained labour force as an underlying factor in low productivity.

With the findings of the whitepaper now published, James Hardie will continue to engage key industry and government leaders to formulate a path forward that aims to attract talent and help to create a sustainable workforce to build the future of Australia.

The full whitepaper, Rebuilding Capacity, can be viewed here.

James Hardie Australia internal marketing team:
Adele Gordon, Marketing Director, James Hardie
Abbey Brookhouse, Brand Activation Manager, James Hardie
Michaela Carnevale, Product Marketing & Corporate Communications Manager
Tom McClintock, Segment Manager Install
Dan Hanara, Business Development Manager – Install & Construction
Owen Reynolds, Business Development Manager – Install & Construction

Parramatta Eels
James Benson, Senior Partnerships Manager
Kirstene Ciappara, Education Program Manager
Tamara Jawad, PR & Public Affairs Manager

Jason Carr, Lead Carpenter at Luxe Construction

Production: Banter

PR and Communications: Weber Shandwick Australia

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