If you’re looking for a job, career, or business with great potential look no further than construction. There’s a serious deficiency of people who know how to build buildings, construct roads and footpaths, install services, and construct gardens. Those who do have the skills are highly sought after.
What’s Driving the Demand?
There are lots of reasons for this:
- A shortage of housing
- Deterioration in training of tradespeople
- No skilled migration for almost 2 years due to covid
- Property destruction by floods and fire
- Decades of poor housing policy
- Logistics, economic, technological, and social changes
As a result, there are more work opportunities and fewer people available with the skills to do the work. Clients are waiting longer than ever to get work done, and tradespeople are charging more than ever to do the work.
What does the Construction Industry Need?
Right now, key tradespeople are urgently needed.
- Carpenters – to build timber frames for housing, install doorways and architraves, hang doors, install window frames and windows, lay flooring, to build and install kitchen cabinets.
- Masons – to lay bricks, stone and concrete blocks, seal foundations, render brickwork, pebbledash, repair brick and concrete structures, do concreting and tiling.
- Painters – to prepare, paint or decorate a range of interior and exterior surfaces using different types of finishes.
But it doesn’t stop here. There is demand for labourers, semi-skilled workers, machine operators, and earth movers who all play important roles in the preparation of construction works and everyday operations on building sites. Other tradespeople who may be involved include plumbers, electricians, plasterers, welders, and landscapers.
There is also a call for knowledgeable people to oversee building works so there are roles for supervisors, project managers, and site foremen and forewomen. They are increasingly reliant on subcontractors and anyone else who has some level of knowledge in how to build things with wood, stone, metal, concrete, or other materials.
To get work off the ground, the industry also relies on town planners, building designers, and architects, and the shift to sustainable building practices means more people are needed with an understanding of healthy buildings, new materials, and new technologies.
In short, there are all sorts of positions for people with differing levels of construction skills, knowledge and experience,
and demand for these people is set to boom.
Other Construction Opportunities
The lack of key construction personnel has also opened doors for other people to get involved in the industry. Renovation has emerged as a rapidly developing area of opportunity. With fewer tradespeople available, more people than ever are learning skills to renovate – taking on their own home improvement projects and adding value to their properties along the way.
For some, what starts as a home renovation project can develop into a new career path – buying, improving, then selling properties for a tidy profit. For others, it means gaining the confidence to be more self-sufficient, and getting satisfaction from successfully completing DIY projects.
Many people find that once they have repaired their garden wall, built themselves some shelves, or done a kitchen makeover, they are hooked. They start looking for their next project and spend more of their spare time in hardware stores and doing DIY.
What Do You Need to Learn?
In construction, no-one can be an expert at everything. That’s why there are different trades. However, with the right knowledge, persistence and practice, most people can achieve a reasonable level of competence in most building and construction jobs.
You just need to figure out where to begin. For those who are new to the industry, it’s best to focus on one area at a time. Try learning construction skills and techniques first. Start with a foundation course in carpentry or masonry, or perhaps painting or tiling. When you’ve tried one thing, you’ll feel more confident trying something else.
Whatever area of construction you explore, you will find that there are lots of valued skills which are common throughout the construction industry. If you learn these, your skills are more transferable.
- Machinery – setting up, operating, different applications, and maintenance.
- Tools, materials, and equipment – learning the options and matching the right choices to the job, handling, and storage.
- Planning – designing projects, creating or interpreting plans and drawings, calculating quantities and costs, setting out jobs, planning logistics.
- Project management – conception, implementation, working to specifications, completing work to schedules.
- Management – communication and supervisory skills, organising teams and personnel, ordering supplies, and maintaining inventories.
- Risk management – workplace health and safety, sustainable design, organising insurance.
- Waste management – organising proper waste disposal, cleaning a site, maintaining site hygiene.
How You Can Get Started in the Construction Industry ?
While getting a start might be relatively easy, it is critical to have some level of knowledge and an awareness of your strengths and limitations. Without these, it can be very easy to fail before you get very far at all. Here are some ideas to get started:
- Undertake some simple home renovation jobs where you live and get some experience learning as you go.
- Seek casual employment with builders, contractors, landscapers, manufacturers, or materials suppliers.
- Do a foundation course to learn the fundamentals of carpentry, masonry, painting and decorating, mechanics, or something else.
- Engage with industry people and events – by attending trade shows, joining groups, volunteering. Anything that connects you with people who share an interest in construction is a step in the right direction.
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