West Midlands Business Festival

This session explores how construction companies can deliver meaningful and measurable social value by engaging underrepresented communities and unlocking overlooked talent across the West Midlands.

Despite significant investment and regeneration across the region, many individuals, particularly young people from ethnic minority and disadvantaged backgrounds, remain disconnected from opportunities within the construction sector. At the same time, employers continue to face skills shortages and challenges in building sustainable workforce pipelines.

This event brings together contractors, developers, local authorities, recruiters, educators and community organisations to focus on practical delivery, not just policy intent.

• The session will open with a scene-setting address from Sharon Thompson, Deputy Mayor at the West Midlands Combined Authority and Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Economy & Skills at Birmingham City Council, outlining the regional context around skills, inclusive growth and social value.
• The session will be led by Muhammad Sibi, Founder and Director of SibiNet, who will share insights into some of the successful social value initiatives SibiNet has delivered across the region.
• Olayemi Usman, Cost Manager at Turner & Townsend, will share an industry perspective on career progression and skills in modern construction, including how emerging and digital roles are creating new and more accessible pathways into the sector.

The latter part of the session will be discussion-focused, using live audience input to explore where social value delivery becomes difficult in practice across design, implementation and monitoring. The aim is to identify shared challenges and areas where additional support, consistency or new approaches could add value.

The session will conclude with a clear call to action, inviting participants to explore next steps for addressing the priority challenges identified.

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Location

iCentrum, Innovation Birmingham, Holt Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B7 4BP