Trade careers need a boost, and this 'Life Changing' campaign has all the right tools

Access Training and Creative Coalition have put trades centre stage in a new London OOH push. The result is striking, no nonsense, and we reckon AI proof.

Access Training has launched a new out-of-home campaign across London that reframes trade careers as one of the smartest answers to the UK’s skills crisis.

Developed by independent agency Creative Coalition, the work is the first major OOH outing from a two‑year partnership focused on turning a performance-led training provider into a nationally recognised brand.

The campaign features five executions that each tap into a live issue facing the UK workforce, from labour shortages to the rising cost of living, positioning a skilled trade not as a fallback but as a future-proof career choice.

Lines include “Access Training helps anyone Fill the Skills Gap”, prompted by a widely reported shortfall of more than 300,000 skilled tradespeople nationwide.

Results driven

Creative Coalition’s strategy moves the brand conversation away from details about qualifications and towards the life outcomes that training unlocks.

Rather than selling classrooms and curricula, the work champions what students are able to do with their new skills – higher earnings, long-term security and the freedom to change their lives for the better.

That thinking runs across Access Training’s wider brand overhaul, which now stretches from the design of its 37 regional centres to its website, training portal, digital and social presence. The London posters act as a high-impact public expression of a platform built to support both individual ambition and national economic growth.

“We are very proud of this campaign. Bold, simple, colourful, optimistic, thoughtful, carefully crafted and completely unexpected for the category. We hope to change and raise the perceptions of a career in the trades to how it deserves to be seen: a highly skilled profession that is a crucial part of British life,” said Guy Moore, Creative Coalition.

“There is a lot of uncertainty in the UK at the moment. The campaign aims to tackle some of the challenges many of us face: The unrewarding drudgery of working in the corporate world; Bouncing back from a career setback; Making yourself AI-proof in an insecure world; Doing something that will always be well paid and in demand. We wanted to highlight how a career in the trades can help people make a positive change, at any stage of life and whatever their circumstances,” Creative Coalition's Pete Bracegirdle added.

Our take

Described as ‘bold, simple, colourful and optimistic, with copy that is deliberately “unexpected for the category”’ we can’t help but agree. Which really leaves little to say in Our Take this time.

The tone is thoughtful rather than shouty, balancing urgency around the skills shortage with a sense of opportunity for people considering a mid-life switch or a first step into work.

The posters are free of stock imagery and generic employability language, and feel optimistic and bespoke-designed, befitting the message.

Given that I’ve been around trade people on my house refurb for the last month, and gotten involved a bit too, I can report its tough work, highly skilled and weirdly addictive. Plus, stuff will always need fixing and building.

Take that AI, and good work Creative Coalition.

Credits

Strategy and creative: Pete Bracegirdle and Guy Moore, Creative Coalition
Access Training: Ian Bennett, Lewis Meaden, Kate Lowe
Media: Ben Duhig, Bluesoup
Photography: Andy Gallacher
Typography: Guy Moore, Deborah Ranzetta