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Career Area:
Construction
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Construction

“We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.” (Winston Churchill, British prime minister, 1940-1944 and 1951-1955)

Construction is big business in the UK, and in Scotland.

  • Around 2 million people in the UK work in construction.

  • In Scotland, it employs 6% of the workforce – about 220,000 people.

  • Scotland will need 6,830 new construction workers each year between now and 2011, just to keep up with the £21 billion worth of construction work already in the pipeline.

  • The industry is a major employer of apprentices, recruiting more than 4,000 a year, including electrical and plumbing apprentices - most are school leavers.

  • 45% of all construction apprentices are trained in Scotland.

  • More than a third of construction workers in the UK are self-employed.

  • There are almost 200,000 women in the UK construction industry, about 10% of the total workforce.

  • But, women hold only about 1% of craft jobs, while they make up nearly 12% of those in design and management.
It is forecast that Glasgow's successful bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the £3 billion Scottish Transport Investment programme, combined with the effect of building work for the 2012 Olympics will mean increased demand for construction workers.

Despite the current slow down in growth caused by the recession the industry is expected to start to recover in the second half of 2010. The current forecast is that employment will grow by about 7% in Scotland between now and 2013.

To work in this career area, you need to be practical and methodical. You should have a technical interest. You must work accurately, and be willing to take responsibility. Whatever job you do, you will be contributing to the safety of a structure which lots of people will use.

For some jobs you need to be physically strong. For most you must be good with your hands.

You also need other skills besides the technical ones.

  • You must be able to work as part of a team – you might have to supervise a team.

  • You might need to plan projects or write reports.

  • In some jobs you have to get on well with the public – if you are a painter and decorator for instance, you must be friendly, polite and prepared to listen to your customer.

You can get into construction work at different levels: operative, craft, technical or graduate (with a degree).

  • You do not need qualifications to get work as an operative.

  • For construction crafts, you can apply for a Modern Apprenticeship when you leave school. If you do this you will do training on-the-job and at college, to get a Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ) at Level 3.

  • To get a technical job you usually need a Higher National Certificate (HNC) or Higher National Diploma (HND). For some technical jobs you can work your way up from an operative or craftsperson.

  • For some jobs you need to take a degree before you start work.
The jobs have been divided into 7 sectors:

  • Architecture

  • Building technology and management

  • Civil and structural engineering

  • Construction crafts

  • Landscape architecture

  • Surveying

  • Town and regional planning.

Sources

Construction Skills Network Scotland LMI 2009-2013 (Experian Report) (http://www.constructionskills.net/)

Construction: Scottish Sector Profile (2005) Futureskills Scotland (http://www.futureskillsscotland.org.uk/)

ConstructionSkills website (http://www.cskills.org/)

Construction in Scotland - 2009-2013 (AMA Research)