The UK’s unemployment rate hit a near five-year high in the last three months of 2025, climbing to 5.2%, according to official figures.
That’s a reflection of slow economic growth, and a result of businesses being squeezed to the point where investing in new people is harder to justify – especially if they can now rely on more sophisticated automation or AI solutions to take up the slack instead.
The rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence is having a particularly big impact on white collar workers, with reports highlighting that education providers are seeing a shift towards apprenticeship and ‘hands-on’ work as AI becomes more widely used for office tasks.
AI is essentially now fast-tracking trade apprenticeships as young adults (and older workers) look to future proof their career prospects. The logic behind this is that it will be a while yet before robots are agile enough to fix radiator leaks, re-wire a house, re-tile a roof or – more importantly for our sector – be able to fit a set of bi-fold doors or an order for new, triple glazed casements.
Early careers job advertisements are said to have fallen by a third since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022. About 40% of recent graduates are also reported to be ‘underemployed’, meaning they work in a job that does not require a degree.
That means when a van full of ‘tradies’ stops off for a coffee and bacon sandwich on the way to work, they are most likely going to be served by a media studies graduate who’s desperately looking to pay off that £50k plus student loan – and is wondering whether they could start by helping out on the local building site.
This doesn’t mean that AI is a bad thing. In fact, there are AI powered software solutions already available that are designed specifically to make life easier, more efficient and more profitable for installer and fabricator companies.
But for now they are predominantly best suited for admin tasks like order processing, quoting, billing, as well as for helping with marketing and advertising.
So, if you’re looking for new talent to bolster your factory or fitting teams, then the answer may lay outside the gates of the nearest university campus on graduation day.
Will your new window fitter be a media graduate?
The UK’s unemployment rate hit a near five-year high in the last three months of 2025, climbing to 5.2%, according to official figures.
That’s a reflection of slow economic growth, and a result of businesses being squeezed to the point where investing in new people is harder to justify – especially if they can now rely on more sophisticated automation or AI solutions to take up the slack instead.
The rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence is having a particularly big impact on white collar workers, with reports highlighting that education providers are seeing a shift towards apprenticeship and ‘hands-on’ work as AI becomes more widely used for office tasks.
AI is essentially now fast-tracking trade apprenticeships as young adults (and older workers) look to future proof their career prospects. The logic behind this is that it will be a while yet before robots are agile enough to fix radiator leaks, re-wire a house, re-tile a roof or – more importantly for our sector – be able to fit a set of bi-fold doors or an order for new, triple glazed casements.
Early careers job advertisements are said to have fallen by a third since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022. About 40% of recent graduates are also reported to be ‘underemployed’, meaning they work in a job that does not require a degree.
That means when a van full of ‘tradies’ stops off for a coffee and bacon sandwich on the way to work, they are most likely going to be served by a media studies graduate who’s desperately looking to pay off that £50k plus student loan – and is wondering whether they could start by helping out on the local building site.
This doesn’t mean that AI is a bad thing. In fact, there are AI powered software solutions already available that are designed specifically to make life easier, more efficient and more profitable for installer and fabricator companies.
But for now they are predominantly best suited for admin tasks like order processing, quoting, billing, as well as for helping with marketing and advertising.
So, if you’re looking for new talent to bolster your factory or fitting teams, then the answer may lay outside the gates of the nearest university campus on graduation day.
Luke Wood
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