James Hardie Launches The Trade Off to Inspire Young Australians into Construction Careers

Trade careers are essential to shaping Australia’s future.

From building homes to delivering critical infrastructure, skilled tradespeople play a vital role in our nation’s growth. Yet with the industry requiring an additional 116,000 housing construction workers by 2030, providing the tools for young people to consider careers in trade has never been more important.

James Hardie is proud to launch The Trade Off Series, a new initiative designed to encourage more young Australians to consider careers in construction and help shine a light on the opportunities available through trade pathways.

Created in collaboration with the Parramatta Eels and hosted by renovation expert Scott Cam, The Trade Off brings together past and present Eels players, trade professionals and apprentices for a carpentry-based challenge that celebrates practical skills and the value of learning a trade.

Encouraging the next generation of tradies

The National Housing Accord has set an ambitious target of 274,000 new homes to be built per year until 2029.

Through this campaign, James Hardie aims to make trade careers more visible and accessible to Australians, particularly those considering their next step after school.

Alongside Scott, the series features three past and present Parramatta Eels players taking on a James Hardie-backed team of trade professionals and apprentices in a special carpentry challenge. The Eels team includes qualified carpenter and former NRL player Andrew Davey, and two players, Araz Nanva and Arthur Miller-Stephen, currently undertaking carpentry apprenticeships to highlight the viability of trade qualifications as personal development areas.

Rebuilding capacity

Inspiring more young Australians to consider a career in the trades is only one part of the solution. Alongside The Trade Off Series, James Hardie has developed a whitepaper exploring the current state of Australia's residential construction workforce and the challenges facing the industry as it works to meet future housing demand.

The whitepaper highlights an industry facing a workforce capacity shortfall of around 30%, while also examining opportunities to help improve productivity, strengthen workforce participation and create more effective pathways into the trades.

Supporting students with practical pathways

James Hardie is taking the initiative directly to students across Western Sydney through a multi-school speaking tour. The tour includes Q&A sessions with Eels players and career case studies designed to give students greater clarity around construction pathways and the opportunities available in the trades.

To help remove one of the early barriers to entry, these visits will also offer 20 students at each school a fully funded white card, helping to inspire and educate the next generation of residential construction tradespeople.

Helping build the future workforce

This commitment also extends beyond schools to support education and training. In a recently completed pilot program with TAFE NSW to improve fibre cement cladding installation education, James Hardie provided campuses with Hardie™ fibre cement products, power tools, PPE and product-specific training for TAFE educators.

John Arneil, APAC President at James Hardie, said “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.”

As an Australian-founded building materials company, James Hardie recognises that addressing the construction labour shortage will require coordinated effort across industry, education and government.

Through initiatives like The Trade Off, school engagement, white card support and trade education partnerships, James Hardie is proud to help inspire more young Australians to consider the skills, confidence and long-term value that a career in construction can offer.