Building trades

The British construction industry is responsible for £1 billion of work every week; its output is three times that of agriculture and larger than any single manufacturing industry. It accounts for half the UK’s total investment and employs over 10 per cent of the workers in the country (about 1.6 million people). It is a growth sector and it will need an extra 350,000 skilled tradesmen and women over the next three years. Repair and maintenance is now 40 per cent of all construction work.

Every week, thousands of skilled workers and managers transform sites all over the UK from earth and rubble into finished products. For years afterwards maintenance, refurbishment and restoration work keep these structures fit for their original purpose.

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

The Gas and Water Industry National Training Organisation is developing a set of occupational standards and qualifications for people involved in mains laying and service laying. It is hoped that the qualifications that result will be as common as possible across the industries concerned to offer 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.

Qualifications

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 work and then general management.

The Construction Industry Training Board’s 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, Modern Apprenticeships at Advanced and Foundation level, and a construction apprentice scheme for the younger entrant. Ambitious people can start by gaining vocational qualifications in any of the above trades while working as a craftsman or woman, developing 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.

Section: Case history: building trades

Been there, done that

Peter McCumiskey

After 12 years in the Army and aged 30, Lance Corporal Peter McCumiskey left 26 Engineer Regiment. He had trained as a plumber (City & Guilds Basic and Advanced), and was also qualified as both a Combat and Armoured Engineer. He also had operational tours in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and Northern Ireland under his belt.

His Career Transition Workshop was ‘helpful’, but he found that his lack of experience of domestic plumbing made it difficult to get a start in that area. However, a phone call to Step to Training – ‘really good and gave a lot of help at the start’ – followed by a chance meeting at a job fair led to a tailor-made course to prepare him for jobs in the commercial plumbing field. After 20 intensive days, he had passed the core gas safety certificate and gained the necessary qualifications to work with fires, boilers, water heaters, cookers and ovens. He also received more advice on job hunting – specifically in building trades.

McCumiskey posted his CV on the Internet and was interviewed for a position with Lochinvar Limited as a service technician, working in large commercial boilers. After another six months working with experienced engineers, he will become one of four technicians working for the company in the south of England.