Cornwall Opportunities
Sector Focus: The Built Environment
Construction and the Built Environment is one of the most dynamic and forward-looking industries for long-term career opportunities. Building long-term careers in Cornwall The industry is helping lead our digital revolution with Building Information Modelling (BIM), construction robotics, 3D printing, drone and satellite technologies, autonomous plant, SMART buildings, and Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) as just some of the new frontiers a career in Construction and Built Environment can offer.
Staffing and recruitment in the sector are an increasing challenge, with significant numbers of older skilled workers due to retire over the next five to ten years. However, this also presents a significant opportunity for a new generation of specialist workers and alternative approaches to construction in the future. Cornwall’s average working age is higher than the national average across every industry. There are about 32,970 employees in construction, and of these, 72% are full-time and 18% are part-time in Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly. There are also high percentages of self-employed individuals working in the sector and they can be sub-contracted to larger projects or undertake small works in the domestic sector.
Types of jobs in the sector
Construction and the Built Environment has come a long way – gone are the days of muddy boots on a building site. Today, there are over 200 different job roles available. If you’re a creative person you might enjoy being an architect or interior designer, or you might make a great surveyor or estimator if you’re good with numbers. Are you good at organising things and thinking strategically? Maybe site management or programme planning is for you. Do you care about the environment, or fair and equal society and helping people? Have you considered a career in housing? Or, as an environmental manager—helping minimise the environmental impact of any development. Whilst health and safety managers ensure everyone goes home safely at night. The ways in which you can enter the sector are diverse. You can do an apprenticeship, study full or part-time at college, undertake a Skills Bootcamp , go to university and join a Graduate Scheme – the world is your oyster. The greatest thing about the industry is the potential to progress; many successful directors in large construction businesses never went to university, instead starting out as apprentices.
The sector makes up 7% of the Cornish economy and the median average salary is £32,978 with salaries for different occupations within the sector showing significant variation and much higher rates. Construction offers diverse, high-tech, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) based career opportunities that can help the UK and the world, drive the changes we need to help address the challenge of creating a low-carbon, renewable-energy-based economy, that also requires continuation of traditional skills to support the built and natural environments of the future. Demand for construction and construction skills grows. Whether that’s to create the homes we need, places we work, social infrastructure that underpins our world, or to support the growth of the natural environment and biodiversity improvements that are so important to our future.
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