Builders Do It From The Bottom Up
Surgeon number one says, “Builders make the best patients”. Surgeon number two disagrees. “Builders? No, electricians are the best patients because they’re colour coded inside”. Surgeon number one comes back with “electricians are good but builders never complain when there are a few parts left out and if the job takes longer than you said”.
All builders start with the basics, usually through an apprenticeship. Vocational learning allows you to learn while you work while you earn. It is simultaneous qualifications and invaluable experience. Apprenticeships take up to four years depending on the nature of the training programme taken on.
Apprentice builders In England and Wales practice the physical skills and learn the underpinning knowledge at two standards, the foundation and the advanced (called the modern apprenticeship in Wales). Both standards give the builder units and levels at National Vocational qualifications. They also get key skills such as health and safety qualifications as well as technical certificates.
Even if you start your construction career on the bottom rung of the ladder with general work on construction sites you can apply through Construction Skills councils for NVQ unit accreditation. The foundation is an application form in paper or online.
Would be apprentices have to take an entrance test that takes about one and a half hours, and includes aptitude and basic skills questions.
To begin an apprenticeship would be builders have to find a company to take them on. The company employs them, pays them, and provides them with the all-important work experience they need to build competence throughout their apprenticeship.
The basic question then is how can an apprentice get on the first rung of the builder career ladder? In the time-honoured tradition more people get a start in building through contacts of parents, family and friends than through any other route.
More formally, they can contact their local construction skills office, look in yellow pages or register their interest with the local ‘Connexions’ office.
Unfortunately if would be builders do not find a company that can employ them as an apprentice then they will not be offered a place on a Construction Skills training programme.
The apprenticeship begins once the young person is employed and terms and conditions are agreed. A training programme will be agreed at a local Construction Skills centre. The apprenticeship can last up to four years dependant upon the exact programme selected.
Basic builder skills are mathematics and literacy of course. These have to be demonstrated in communication and understanding of the absolutely vital health and safety. Building is a hazardous occupation by its very nature. All builders must take responsibility for their own health and safety as well as the health and safety of others who may be affected by their actions.
Building skills for builders everywhere does begin at the bottom with basics and apprenticeships but it goes on from there to advanced apprenticeships available from the National Construction. But the best thing about builders is that they are continually learning by doing.
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