Building Trades

The British construction industry is responsible for £28 billion of outputs every year, more than 8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), three times that of agriculture and larger than any single manufacturing industry. It accounts for half the UK’s total investment and employs one in 14 of the total UK workforce – around 2.1 million people. It is a growth sector and will need an extra 370,000 skilled tradesmen and women over the next five years.

There are 175,000 construction firms in the UK (95 per cent of which employ fewer than 10 people) and 23,500 professional practices – with significant skills gaps. The industry needs 86,000 new recruits every year for the next five years. Also, in order to achieve its target of a fully qualified workforce by 2010 it needs to qualify 100,000 workers each year to NVQ 2 level. Recent surveys show that:

· expectations of future workload are higher than last year

· nearly 70 per cent of companies have recruitment difficulties

· one-third of companies have had to refuse a contract because of a shortage of skilled staff

· 50 per cent of companies could get the staff required by offering higher wages

· skill levels of new recruits were a problem.

Building trades in the Services

Apart from a handful of people employed in units to carry out minor carpentry and repair jobs, and Army pioneers who have basic building skills, all three Services rely on the Royal Engineers for construction. Non-commissioned ranks will have completed anything from NVQs at Level 2 in basic training and Level 3 after higher training, to a Modern Apprenticeship. Trades vary from surveyor to plant operator, and from draughtsman to bricklayer.

Craft careers

Craftsmen and women are the people who actually make things. Some major skills in which they are trained include:

· electrical installation and maintenance

· plumbing

· bricklaying

· plastering

· carpentry and joinery

· gas installation and maintenance.

We will now look at each of these in turn.

Electrical installation and maintenance

Electrical engineers deal with power generation and power supply. Modern manufacturing techniques tend to make replacement of a faulty component more cost-effective for the consumer than mending it in situ. Much of the traditional role of the maintenance engineer has therefore changed, with removal and re-installation the norm.

For electrical engineering, the basic requirement is 16th Edition Wiring Regulations. This shows that the individual knows the necessary regulations and how to use them, and it is virtually impossible to start in the industry without it. The next step is the Inspection and Testing of Electrical Installation City & Guilds 2391 qualification. Many people starting in the industry have academic qualifications and, to progress, further academic and vocational qualifications are recommended.

Plumbing

Plumbers install central heating systems, controls and pipework; sanitary systems; drainage systems; guttering and rainwater systems. Heating systems may be powered using electricity, gas, oil or solid fuel. Sometimes refrigeration and water purification systems are also fitted. Maintenance work includes routine servicing and emergency repairs. Repair work involves finding faults, replacing or repairing damaged parts, carrying out tests and making sure everything works properly. A range of hand and power tools are used to cut, bend and join metal and plastic pipes.

There are approximately 28,000 plumbers at work in the UK. Most work directly for a plumbing or maintenance firm, while some, particularly in the domestic sector, are self-employed. Plumbers work in a team or alone, and, for domestic repair and maintenance, they tend to deal directly with clients.

Bricklaying

This is probably the job that most people think of in connection with the building trades. However, bricklayers use many different types of material to create different effects (such as ornamental walls and vaulted archways). Bricklayers also use a variety of specialist tools to spread mortar, cut bricks or blocks to size, and to check that walls are perfect. They should enjoy working in the great outdoors and not mind working at heights. They must also be physically fit, careful, accurate and able to follow detailed instructions from architects. Bricklayers often get to travel around the country, and sometimes abroad.

Wage rates are set annually by the Building and Allied Trades Joint Industrial Council. Overtime and incentives are often available, and bricklayers often progress to technical, supervisory and managerial roles.

Plastering

Most people know about plasterers applying wet finishes to walls, ceilings and floors; this is known as solid plastering. Fibrous plastering involves making ornamental plasterwork in a workshop – the kind you might see on the ceilings of decorative buildings. Plasterers have to be prepared to climb ladders, and will spend most of their time indoors. Again, wage rates are set annually by the Building and Allied Trades Joint Industrial Council.

Currently, demand for skilled labour outstrips supply so overtime and incentives are often available. Payment to sub-contract labour tends to be on an agreed price per linear metre of partition installed, so speed and accuracy are important. The work provides a high level of job satisfaction, with plasterers often progressing to higher roles or even owning their own companies.

Carpentry and joinery

Carpenters and joiners prepare and put in place most of the wooden parts of buildings – from floorboards and roof trusses to expertly crafted windows and doors. They use very specialised woodworking tools and work with many different kinds of wood. They often work in teams and have to be able to calculate angles and dimensions to make sure everything fits. They need mathematical aptitude and generally have to be just as good with their heads as their hands.

Again, wage rates are set annually by the Building and Allied Trades Joint Industrial Council, with overtime and incentives often available. Carpenters and joiners sometimes move into other allied occupations including formworking, shopfitting, bench joinery, maintenance work and interior systems installation; some move into management or run their own businesses.

Gas installation and maintenance

Energy & Utility Skills Limited (the Sector Skills Council for electricity, gas, waste management and water) is developing a set of occupational standards and qualifications, including a Level 4 NVQ. It is hoped that the qualifications that result will be as common as possible across the industries concerned to enable workers freedom of employment in the entire sector.

Anyone working on gas appliances or fittings as a business must be competent and registered with the Council of Registered Gas Installers (CORGI). Competency can be proved under the Accredited Certification Scheme (ACS). CORGI provides a route to ACS through a distance learning programme. ACS has a two-day core domestic gas safety assessment and a number of appliance assessments that take half a day each. A competent student should take five days to pass the full domestic suite of qualifications.

Training

Many of these trades are learnt on the job, but the construction industry has training schemes that combine working and education to produce qualifications that the individual can build up over time to develop expertise in a particular area. For example, a plasterer might start by learning the basics of plastering walls, but go on to become an expert in ornate ceiling and wall decoration in expensive houses. Other people might build a portfolio in a number of skills to qualify them for supervisory and then general management.

CITB-ConstructionSkills is the Sector Skills Council for many building trades. Its National Construction College is a network of colleges training and assessing construction skills throughout the UK. It is increasingly becoming necessary to hold registration or certification of competence and/or training in particular aspects of building skills to obtain employment in the industry.

The industry has its own vocational qualifications, Apprenticeships and Advanced Apprenticeships, and a construction apprentice scheme for the younger entrant. Ambitious people can start by gaining vocational qualifications in any of these trades while working as a craftsman or woman, develop their skills through technical training, perhaps gaining certificates or diplomas, eventually becoming fully professionally qualified, with a degree. Building is an employment field in which people can achieve as much as they want, depending on the amount of effort they are prepared to put in.

Contact details

Electrical installation and maintenance

SEMTA (Sector Skills Council for Science Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies), 14 Upton Road, Watford, Herts WD18 0JT Tel: 01923 238441 Fax: 01923 256086 Website: www.semta.org.uk

Joint Industry Board, Kingswood House, 47/51 Sidcup Hill, Sidcup, Kent DA14 6HP Tel: 020 8302 0031 Fax: 020 8309 1103 Website: www.jib.org.uk

JTL Head Office, Stafford House, 120/122 High Street, Orpington, Kent BR6 0JS Tel: 01689 884100 Fax: 01689 891658 Website: www.jtlimited.co.uk

Plumbing, bricklaying, plastering, woodworking

CITB-ConstructionSkills, Bircham Newton, Kings Lynn, Norfolk PE31 6RH Tel: 01485 577577 Fax: 01485 577793 Website: www.citb.org.uk (National Construction College Tel: 08457 336666 Fax: 01485 577997)

Plumbing

SummitSkills Limited (Sector Skills Council for the electrotechnical, heating, ventilating, air conditioning, refrigeration and plumbing industries), Fairbourne Drive, Atterbury, Milton Keynes MK10 9RG Tel: 0870 351 4620 Fax: 01908 487709 Website: www.summitskills.org.uk

Gas installation and maintenance

Energy & Utility Skills Limited, Friars Gate Two, 1011 Stratford Road, Shirley, Solihull B90 4BN Tel: 0845 077 9922 Fax: 0845 077 9933 Website: www.euskills.co.uk

Council of Registered Gas Installers, 1 Elmwood, Chineham Park, Crockford Lane, Basingstoke, Hants RG24 8WG Tel: 0870 401 2200 Fax: 0870 401 2600 Website: www.corgi-gas-safety.com

Matt Stow

Spending the years from 1999 to 2004 in the Royal Navy gave Operator Mechanic Above Water Warfare Matt Stow ‘electrical training and basic engineering knowledge’. During these five years, he also gained an Engineering NVQ Level 1, as well as service on frigates and on peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone.

In 2004, his search for a career change led him to a Gastec Gas Utilisation Course, which was ‘well run and useful, and involved civilian attachments’. Stow’s first job, gained through Gastec, was as a servicing and breakdown engineer, but he has been a gas engineer with Amec for the last eight months. This involves ‘exchanging gas meters, testing commercial pipework, verifying external and internal gas escapes, and being called out for boiler breakdowns’.

He likes the fact that ‘the job keeps your mind occupied and no two jobs are the same. I have been given a lot more responsibility and am left to manage myself for my day-to-day job.’ The major similarity with his RN occupation is the amount of electrical work that the two have in common.

In terms of salary, he has ‘gone from £18,000 a year in the Navy to £34,000 a year with bonuses at Amec’.