Advice - complete retraining - Construction

nettyt

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I am being very repetitive, I know, but I suggest that he makes an appointment for a (free) careers guidance interview with Nextstep; they should be able to help him assess his strengths and decide on a future direction.

Thank you, I have got the contact details for our nearesr Nextsteps and will be making an appointment asap. Thanks for all your advice, greatly appreciated

nettyt

dmg24 wrote: »

I agree with others who have noted the downturn in the construction industry. The problem is that when the market does pick up, he will be competing with all those that have been made redundant before. They will all have prior experience and be likely to be willing to take pay cuts to get back into the workplace.

I hope he finds something suitable, but I really don't think this is the way to go.

Thank you, very good points.

Zazen999

nettyt wrote: »

like I said we are just brainstormng at the moment and this is one avenue we are looking at. We are not anive and we ont expect him to walk into anything but I dont see the harm in having aspirations and dont see the point of shooting people down who are genuinely trying hard to get on in life.

He has no previous experience or training however having experience of these industres from a recruitment perspective I feel that this would suit his personality perfectly. We just need some pointers on where to start?? Are there adult apprenticeships available (he's 34) or would he need to become a full time student initially?

Not only is construction in a downturn now, once the general election is over, and the Tories get in, the funding for training and further social housing will be chopped. Also the schools investment [which at the moment is propping up a huge swathe of the industry], plus roads, and other infrastructure investment will disappear.

You've said he has no previous experience; which means he will be up against potentially hundreds of others who have.

Adult Apprenticeships, whilst they do exist, you'd be hard pressed to find any construction employer who is looking to support these. Unless you are female wanting to enter the industry the funding is not there.

If he does go into training, he would need to do a basic course [possibly ONC for 2 years], then a HNC [another 2], and then a degree/QS/PM quals.

It is a very rare breed to find someone who is PM/QSing with no industry knowledge.

Then, once he is in it is a hard industry to get on in. Long hours, lots of travel away from home as the jobs that companies win are not always down the road from where the staff are based.

I would say from your posts, that it is site management he might be better off doing - not PMing and definitely not QSing. This is even harder to get into using the professional route, but might be easier if he got a job by word of mouth at a more junior level and worked on site and went for promotions and got the training on the job. This - in any other time than a recession - would be the quicker route for him. Esp with alot of graduates leaving uni at the moment with no jobs to go into.

I'd also big up his CV, in relation to his experiences in developing projects and his own business, and apply to the big companies, he might just find that one or two still have places on their work experience placements for the coming year. AND if you have any academies nearby, contact them - they might have openings for someone keen.

Anyway - good luck. It's a jungle out there in the world of construction and it was a dog-eat-dog world out there to begin with.

nettyt

Zazen999 wrote: »

Not only is construction in a downturn now, once the general election is over, and the Tories get in, the funding for training and further social housing will be chopped. Also the schools investment [which at the moment is propping up a huge swathe of the industry], plus roads, and other infrastructure investment will disappear.

You've said he has no previous experience; which means he will be up against potentially hundreds of others who have.

Adult Apprenticeships, whilst they do exist, you'd be hard pressed to find any construction employer who is looking to support these. Unless you are female wanting to enter the industry the funding is not there.

If he does go into training, he would need to do a basic course [possibly ONC for 2 years], then a HNC [another 2], and then a degree/QS/PM quals.

It is a very rare breed to find someone who is PM/QSing with no industry knowledge.

Then, once he is in it is a hard industry to get on in. Long hours, lots of travel away from home as the jobs that companies win are not always down the road from where the staff are based.

I would say from your posts, that it is site management he might be better off doing - not PMing and definitely not QSing. This is even harder to get into using the professional route, but might be easier if he got a job by word of mouth at a more junior level and worked on site and went for promotions and got the training on the job. This - in any other time than a recession - would be the quicker route for him. Esp with alot of graduates leaving uni at the moment with no jobs to go into.

I'd also big up his CV, in relation to his experiences in developing projects and his own business, and apply to the big companies, he might just find that one or two still have places on their work experience placements for the coming year. AND if you have any academies nearby, contact them - they might have openings for someone keen.

Anyway - good luck. It's a jungle out there in the world of construction and it was a dog-eat-dog world out there to begin with.

Thank you, have found your comments very useful!