Construction industry

The British construction industry is responsible for £81 billion worth 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 1 in 14 of the total UK workforce – around 2.1 million people. Construction output is set to rise by 13 per cent by 2010, requiring 350,000 new 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), 23,500 professional practices, and significant skills gaps. The industry needs 88,000 new recruits every year for the next four years. More than 80 per cent of all its workers are self-employed or in small firms, sub-contracted to major companies. Three-quarters of its organisations do not invest in training, so that 500,000 construction workers have no formal Level 2 qualification – the minimum level to work on a site demanded by government regulation by 2010. A programme of On-Site Assessment and Training is bringing 100,000 workers each year up to this standard.

Skills analysis reveals a significant shortage in managerial positions. Although the highest skills requirement is for workers with wood trade skills, there is also demand for managers, clerical staff, architects, engineers, and other design and technical professionals. In total, the number of white-collar workers the industry needs to recruit every year to 2010 is forecast to be over 36,000.

Construction growth is expected to shift from the north to the south and east, driven by new builds that include £36 billion of large (£100 million-plus) projects, although private output growth is likely to exceed that of publicly funded construction. Major programmes are the King’s Cross redevelopment, the East London Line extension, Victoria Station redevelopment, ports projects at Shellhaven, Felixstowe and Harwich, and the Olympics and Thames Gateway construction programmes. Recent drought and floods underline the need for further construction effort due to environmental and climatic pressures.

·The occupations with the greatest number of workers will be architects and technical engineers, managers, wood trades and non-construction operatives.

·Employment growth in the south is forecast to rise by 12 per cent, compared to just 6 per cent in the north.

·The annual requirement for wood trades workers is over 11,000, primarily due to the strength of the housing sector (new work, repair and maintenance).

·The demand for architects and technical engineers totals over 9,000.

The industry includes 200,000 women (1 per cent of trades people, and 12 per cent of designers and managers), but needs to recruit many more women and people from ethnic minorities in order to reflect the population mix, while there is a shortfall in the number of recruits entering construction trades from formal training schemes.

Construction in the Services

Apart from a few 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 including airfield and port repair and maintenance. The latter is greatly helped in these tasks by its TA element, including specialist teams and civil affairs experts.

Officers will generally have a first degree in an engineering discipline, on-the-job training and experience, postgraduate qualifications and membership of civilian institutions. Their experience of managing what in effect are engineering projects may well be particularly attractive to any future employer.

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 or, in the case of a Clerk of Works, an MSc. Trades vary from surveyor to plant operator, and from draughtsman to bricklayer.

Professional and management careers

People employed at this level will usually be qualified as one of the following:

• architect
• architectural technologist
• building control surveyor
• building engineer
• building services engineer
• building surveyor
• civil engineer
• construction manager
• facilities manager
• general practice surveyor
• geomatics surveyor
• geospatial modeller
• geotechnical engineer
• hydrographic surveyor
• landscape architect
• land surveyor
• project manager
• quantity surveyor
• structural engineer
• town planner.

Entry to the industry at this level requires academic qualifications. These can be:

· National Certificate (NC), National Diploma (ND), Vocational A-level/Vocational Certificate of Education Advanced Level (AVCE) or General Scottish Vocational Qualification Level 3

· Higher National Certificate (HNC) or Higher National Diploma (HND)

· Foundation degree

· honours degree (BA, BSc, BEng or MEng) – usually in subjects like civil and structural engineering or construction management.

NC, ND, Vocational A-level and GSVQ Level 3 are college qualifications in construction-related subjects such as building studies or construction and the built environment, and roughly equate to A-level. Courses can be full- or part-time and can last two years. To start such training you need four good GCSEs, or equivalent, or vocational qualifications.

HNC and HND are, again, gained through college or university. HNCs are usually part-time with HNDs being full-time; both can take two or three years to complete. Entry to an HNC or HND course needs A-levels, or equivalent, or a vocational qualification at the right level (NC, ND, Vocational A-level/AVCE or GSVQ Level 3). People qualified at this level usually start as advanced technicians or trainee managers and work towards professional qualifications such as Incorporated Engineer. Some could have started in craft apprenticeships and worked their way up from there.

Foundation degrees take two years to complete full-time or three to four years part-time, and provide entry to the third year of honours degrees. The latter degrees take three to four years to complete full-time, and five or more years part-time. Entry is through A-levels, or equivalent, and an application through UCAS or direct to the Open University. Vocational A-levels/AVCEs and GSVQ Level 3 are welcomed by some institutions while HNCs and HNDs can enable an individual to enter the second or third year of a degree course.

Graduates coming into the industry usually join a specially tailored training scheme leading to such professional qualifications as Chartered Engineer or Chartered Surveyor.

Technical careers

Technicians generally make things happen by combining theory with practice. They can be qualified in any of the areas appropriate for professional and management careers or as a:

• architectural technician
• buyer
• CAD operative
• estimator
• planner
• plant technical support
• roofing technician
• site engineer
• site inspector
• site technical support.

To start training and/or do a college course requires four GCSEs, or equivalent, at Grade C; with maths, English and the sciences being the preferred subjects. However, some people start training with A-levels and others qualify through craft skills, often attending an FE college to gain national qualifications, Vocational A-Levels/AVCEs or GNVQs. Still others enter with NCs/NDs or vocational qualifications. They can then grow qualifications to Levels 3, 4 and 5.

Craft careers

Craftsmen and women are the people who actually make things. Some major jobs for which they and other levels of the industry are trained include:

• interior and finishing

– ceiling fixer

– dry liner

– floor layer

– glazier

– painter and decorator

– partitioner

– plasterer

– plumber

– renderer

– wall and floor tiler

·plant

– plant hire controller

– plant mechanic

– plant operator

– plant sales person

·roofing

– built up felt roofer

– lead sheeter

– liquid waterproofing system operative

– mastic asphalter

– roof sheeter and cladder

– roof slater and tiler

– single ply roofer

·demolition

– demolition operative

– scaffolder

– steel erector

– steeplejack

·trowel

– bricklayer

– construction operative

– stonemason

·wood

– bench joiner

– carpenter and joiner

– formworker

– shop fitter

– wood machinist.

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. (A good basic education including English and maths is recommended.) 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, the Sector Skills Council, has developed the NationalConstructionCollege – a network of colleges offering training in and assessing construction skills throughout the UK.

The industry has its own vocational qualifications and Apprenticeships at Advanced and Apprentice level. People can gain vocational qualifications while working as a craftsman/woman, and develop their skills through technical training, perhaps gaining certificates or diplomas, eventually becoming fully professionally qualified, with a degree. Entry to these schemes requires reasonable maths and English ability, while more than 90 higher education and 400 further education colleges offer courses in construction and the built environment.

Further information

CITB-ConstructionSkills, Bircham Newton, King’s Lynn, Norfolk PE31 6RH Tel: 01485 577577 Website: www.citb-constructionskills.co.uk (NationalConstructionCollege, Tel: 08457 336666)