THE SKILLS GAP HACKATHON
Where: RICS, 12 Great George Street, London, SW1P 3AD
When: 15:00 to 19:00, 27 October 2025 and 11:00 to 19:00, 28 October 2025
What: In-person hackathon
CONNECT. COLLABORATE. CREATE
- Frustrated with the growing industry skills gap?
- Got a great idea about how to close it?
- Want to collaborate with others on a solution?
Join us in person in London on 27 and 28 October to hack game-changing solutions to the built environment skills gap!
The Problem
Labour has set out its stall to deliver 1.5m new homes over the next parliament and to ‘get Britain building again’. However, although it has pledged to create 60,000 new jobs, mainly in construction, the shortfall in construction alone is 250,000 – more than four times the number targeted. Extrapolate this across the wider built environment industry – including housing, commercial real estate, architecture, planning and engineering – and the skills gap is more of an abyss than gap.
So, what can be done to close the gap and ensure the built environment industry has:
- the right number of people?
- the right sort of people?
- the right skills?
That’s what we need your help to work out.
The Solution
You! During this 1.5-day, in-person hackathon, organised by Hackathons UK on behalf of RICS and leading media title BE News, you will be among 30 to 40 young leaders, rising stars, students and tech-heads collaborating on potentially game-changing solutions to the skills gap. At the end of the hackathon, you will have the opportunity to pitch your ideas to our expert judging panel in front of a live audience for a chance to win:
- A pair of Bose headphones for each member of the winning team
- Meeting room space at RICS to develop the winning idea (for three months)
- Your winning idea profiled in BE News and a feature in RICS’ MODUS magazine
- Support from one to two RICS mentors (for three one-hour sessions over three months)
Interested in taking part? Read on to find out more.
The Challenge
‘Develop a solution, not necessarily tech-based, that helps close the skills gap in the built environment industry.’
During the 1.5-day, in-person hackathon, we will be challenging teams to come up with creative, practical solutions that help close the skills gap in the built environment industry.
Your solution could be a policy-oriented campaign, an awareness-raising initiative or a tech-based/enabled initiative. It could relate to the whole built environment industry or just part of it.
It could focus on training needs, social mobility or young people – or another aspect of the skills gap that urgently needs addressing. You might want to use social media channels such as Instagram or TikTok. Or perhaps you can think of a way AI can create rather than take away jobs. The choice is yours.
To help inspire you, here are a few ideas:
- ‘A solution that helps promote built environment careers to school/university students’
- ‘A solution that helps identify skills gaps/training needs/recruitment opportunities’
- ‘A solution that helps identify and attract people from less socially mobile backgrounds’
- ‘A solution that uses AI, tech or data to create rather than take away jobs’
Not inspired by any of these? No problem. Feel free to explore another brilliant idea with your team.
So, are you ready to get involved and make a difference?
Sign me up!
Places are limited and expected to go quickly, so if you are interested in participating, register your interest now here https://hackuk.org/rics/skills-gap/registration.
What happens next?
We will be in contact soon to let you know if you if you are in! We will then invite you to join us for a Teams orientation session when you will get the chance to meet the Hackathons UK team, as well as representatives from RICS and BE News.
Then, on 27 October, you will meet your fellow team mates and everyone else involved in The Skills Gap Hackathon in person at the RICS headquarters on Parliament Square – and over 27 and 28 October, you will get the opportunity to collaborate with like-minded creatives on a brilliant solution to one of the biggest problems facing the built environment industry: the growing skills gap.
Up for the challenge? Then, get in contact now. Your industry needs you!
Sponsored by:
