With the industry as it is at the moment, it would be reasonable to anticipate a plunge in the number of people wanting to train in construction. "When the property and construction industry recovered last time it had difficulty recruiting enough professional graduates in most areas because the numbers joining some of these courses had been low," recalls Alison Hoddell, head of the school of the built and natural environment at the University of the West of England. It appears, however, that the link between economic troubles and course recruitment is not always so straightforward. "In the market downturn in the late eighties, early nineties and the seventies, we had a rise in applications," says Brian Pilkington, lecturer in energy and sustainability in the built environment at the University of Plymouth.
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