The construction industry offers a wide array of entry routes, including apprenticeships which can be undertaken at any age. Your past roles and experience may have equipped you with transferable skills that position you as an excellent candidate for a new job in construction, whatever your age.

It’s possible…

Following a career in the armed forces, Craig Foster relished a new challenge, something he could get stuck into and progress through.

Like so many others, he moved to the construction industry – building a successful career in the process, progressing from an apprentice to supervisor. After 9 years in the armed forces, Craig was “struggling to find a new challenge”.

“Then I found the carpentry apprenticeship,” he says. “The first couple of years of my apprenticeship was spent on the tools with other apprentices, mainly fitting out new office complexes and learning different tricks of the trade. Those skills learnt in my first few years have been an invaluable resource to me on my career journey. The comradery atmosphere of being on the tools has meant that I now have a good group of friends and work colleagues that creates the great work atmosphere.”

Like all apprentices, Craig was supported throughout his programme by his employer and his training provider, ensuring he could learn all the vital on and off-the-job skills to succeed in construction.

“There are many reasons why I enjoy my career in construction,” said Craig. “I would highly recommend this path of career – to anyone looking or thinking about becoming an apprentice, my advice is just do it!”

You could follow Craig’s footsteps of a successful career change. Read below for some great opportunities in the construction industry and the transferrable skills you could use.

Management

Construction is crying out for talented managers to manage diverse, multifunctional teams, both on and off site. Have you work as part of a team in a different industry? Do you have excellent people skills? You may already have the management skills needed and could be easily retrained to apply those skills to the construction industry. You could find a role as a commercial manager which involves looking after project finances, or you could be a construction manager, managing every part of a construction project.

IT

If you have previously had a job that required you to be highly computer literate or proficient with software, there may be some IT-based roles for you in construction. For those with a creative spark, a BIM technician is responsible for producing technical drawings and designs for building projects using CAD software.

If you have experience working with computer technologies and networks, you could retrain as an IT support analyst. You will work on maintaining and improving the company’s hardware, computer systems and networks to better their productivity and efficiency.

Business

If you have previously had a career in another large industry, you may have experience in running and measuring the business side of a company. All construction companies, big and small, rely on having stable finances and making sustainable financial decisions.

Business analysts – a perfect role for those with an eye for numbers – work to use data to measure success and find solutions to problems and help the business run more efficiently in the future. As a business analyst, you will be responsible for helping to manage, change and plan for the future in line with an organisation’s goals.

Planning

If you are a logical thinker and consider yourself highly organised, or have previous experience in planning roles, then there may be suitable job roles for you in construction. However, you may need a degree qualification in a subject related to environment and development, urban planning or property development.