I HAVE A GREAT TRICK TO GET ENOUGH ADEPT BUILDERS FOR BUILDING THE STATUE!

All you do is leave as many building puzzles as you can until you need to train villagers as builders - don't uncover the roster of the dead, don't sort out the rubble patch, don't build the bath. Only build huts so you can increase your population.

THEN when you have a lot of villagers, say when you get to the 35 limit of population, then put them to work on one of the building projects.

Set the persons detail to builder, then put them on a building project until it says they have improved at construction then STOP THEM and put them back on it. This way the building project doesn't get completed (so you can train as many as you like without running out of projects) and it's an easy and quick way to train builders.

This way you'll have plenty of adept builders to complete the statue! After that you can complete the building projects because you'll have plenty of builders!!

I always leave every building project except for the first hut repair, to gain the adepts needed to fix the lift. Once I get the tech to finish all the projects, and unlimited food, I conduct a population explosion with some male parents, and everybody else starts on the huts to expand the population cap.

As the kids begin to mature, I start working on other projects - the bath, the roster, the rubble, dragging them all back to do more huts as population expands again. (I find I can't keep them on-task unless my population is close to the limit) Playing that way I have masters galore for the late-game.

I don't do any building work at all until I've got unlimited food. Everyone is on research, apart from a part-time farmer. Once I get L2 in the faction I'll go for L2 restoration and train up every villager in building to at least trainee level. As each villager becomes 14 they are similarly trained in building.

In the same way as the previous two posters I delay completing the ROD and the rubble clearance to give them something to work on.

I generally prefer to relax a little on my way to L2 of the faction, so I hit the grove before the fish; all up to preference.