Would you encourage your child to train to be a construction worker?

[rickyrickygrimes]

Just listening to a podcast about the lack of construction workers in the uk being a major issue in the (lack of) housing crisis. The Federation of Master Builders reckon they need at least 250,000 new construction workers by 2028 to have even the slightest hope of meeting government targets (and to plug the huge gap caused by Brexit) but the government has only provided funding to support the training of 60,000 new builders.

anyone out there got a child who’s training in this kind of job? Or a DH who’s further down the line? Has it been a good career for him? Anyone teaching or training young people for these kinds of roles?

I don’t know anyone who is encouraging their child to take on this kind of skilled manual worker role. My nephew had previously said he didn’t want go to uni and wanted to be an electrician, but he’s recently changed his mind and wants to study business of some sort. My own 14 yr old has expressed an interest in construction / project management. He’s clever, more than capable of uni, so I’ll be encouraging him down the academic route. I guess I’m wondering where these 250,000 people at going to come from, to train for what has to be a pretty hard physical job.

We had our roof replaced two years ago. DS spent time up on the roof with the slater and developed an enthusiasm for slating. He said he likes the skill and the symmetry, and the feel of the slate !

He wants to be a civil engineer but if he fails his A'levels, I think that might be his fall back.

Our roofer said a good slater can earn £85k a year without having to go far from home, but not a job to do in winter.

Having too many family members who’ve struggled as they got older in very physical manual jobs, including construction, or who have seriously damaged themselves because of wear and tear or work accidents, and who have had to find a new, less physical type of job once they could no longer manage, no.

I don't understand how there's no machinery for bricklaying yet. It seems quite straightforward fir a machine to be programmed to do.

This is what I was going to say.
DP's health (joints and knees mainly) are damaged at age of 43 following years of working in construction.
I wouldn't encourage it to my child. But I would encourage electrical and gas related jobs. Good money and a lack of skilled people there

I have a family member who started off as an engineer and worked up to management. Earns a very good wage (basic of over £200,000) and bonuses/share options.

Also 18 year old starting off at nearly £40,000 pa.

Construction isn't just bricklaying and manual labour.

Look into apprenticeships, there are so many different jobs to choose from.

Yes I would, but I’d also tell them to plan well for retirement due to the physical impact of their jobs. Most of the men in my family (if not all) have construction jobs eg electrician, plasterer etc and they earn really (really) well.

Yep, I would. Lots of people in my family work in the trades. It's good money and interesting work. My brother is a builder. Keeps him fit clambering up over joists and so on. He has a degree in mathematics and I spose uses it for forces and quantities calculations etc.

I mean, partly it's just that he's not a corporate drone type. There's no competition so you can do what you like - name your price, set your terms, work whenever you want. If you're competent at all you're in incredible demand. It's a good option if you're not that biddable. It's a freer life.

My ds17 is about to start a joinery aporenticeship. Its perfect for him, hes really happy. He would be miserable at a desk sitting down all day

DS is 18 and has just left school. He would have loved to have got an apprenticeship as an electrician or a joiner, but the vacancies just aren't there - there are courses at our local college but students are responsible for finding their own apprenticeship. That's fine if you know people in the trades but we don't. A neighbour worked in an industry that supports the trades and says that the difficulty is that the process for getting an apprentice is now very involved - lots of paperwork and many have decided it's just not worth it.

What really needs to happen is for the big developers _ Cala, Bellway, Taylor Wimpey etc - to fund these apprentices on a large scale. They can't complain about not having the workers if they're not prepared to train the apprentices in the numbers they need.

Definitely! Not least for when you need DIY doing on your house at least you’ve got someone to call! 😂 Everyone I know who works in construction are still working into their 60s with limited impact on health and these are hard graft trades. All earn far more than their counterparts in office jobs and are booked solid for months on end sometimes a year

Friends DS is about to start an apprenticeship as an electrician after he finishes his GCSE this summer. His Dad has his own building firm so has grown up around trades. They live in the sort of house that’s on Grand Designs with some land that the Dad did the majority of the work on.

Look at all these buildings going up. All need crane drivers,electricians, joiners, plasterers etc. Also surveyors,project managers etc. I work at a Uni with a School of Built Environment. Teaches the white collar jobs. Once met two students who decided to do degrees after working on site and seeing people turning up in expensive cars, do some talking and driving away. No working in mud or heat. Manual jobs are/can be well paid but as others say you are subject to wear and tear on your health.

Most of the men in my family are or have been in the building industry (dad was a plumber and made a very good living). Our 30 year old nephew is a builder working on sites. Over the last few years he's been earning around £90k.

Ds now almost 20 has never been academic but is very practical. He started a bricklaying course at 16 and a year later went to work as an apprentice with his cousin. Although he loved the bricklaying he found it to be extremely hard on the body. He has some joint hyper mobility and it wrecked his knees for a while to the point he needed physio. Hod carrying is not for the faint hearted.

It's very tough work but most of my family have made enough money from building to retire early, but it's not easy on the body and I can see why they are struggling to get young people in the industry.

Ds is now training to be an MOT inspector which is a much better fit for him.

Definitely! One of the perks of marrying a builder is that no DIY job ever gets left🤣 I guess health complications is different for all because my DH is 53 and been a builder for 30+ years and is still fit as a fiddle

Yes if it suited them & they were interested I’m an architect & have spent over 20yrs working closely with the industry at all levels
There are some great careers out there in construction and they vary quite a bit. It’s definitely worth investigating. Pay can be good and organisations such as the FMB are trying to move the image forward.
A lot of the smaller builders I work with are currently complaining that they lose apprentices to the big house builders who offer more money. This is a shame because the experience these companies give is often sub par & less useful in the long run for these kids careers but I do understand the lure of better pay when your 17/18

Sadly not. There's too much risk of injury and long term physical problems after 40.

How will that work if retirement age increases to 70? Even now I doubt there's many 65yr old builders out there.

My family own a business that is part of the construction industry. I won't be encouraging my children to join it at a very manual level unless they have a very clear plan for exiting by about 40. Good insurances, savings etc. Injury is very common from general wear and tear. My brother is 60 now and really struggling to work but has no choice.

Yes my brother is an electrician and makes good money, enjoys his work and is well suited to the job. My DS has a keen interest in engineering but I’ll be asking him to consider whether the practical side might interest him. Starting working life with a skilled trade and no student debt is no bad thing.

From the posts on here it appears that they’ll have earned enough to retire at 50 anyway!

I work for our family business which is part of the construction industry. My dad was a working class lad who left school at 14 to do an apprenticeship. He is now a millionnaire.

You see, that's absolutely not the case. It's a very optimistic hope. Because some people, probably quite a lot of people, don't end up running a construction firm, or rising effortlessly through the ranks they just bumble along doing manual, even skilled manual, jobs within construction, and then discover their bodies won't let them do it anymore and have to try and come up with a new career in middle-age with no a lot of qualifications of transferable skills.

I had a very nice man in his 50s come around to do a job in January -- he'd been a carpenter but couldn't hack the physicality any more, so was now a security guard doing nights on an industrial estate and had a side hustle putting together flatpack furniture for people.

A builder we had working on our renovation, probably mid-50s, had a fall on the next job he went to, and spent months in hospital.

My BIL was a highly-skilled stonemason until his back gave out, and he is now a streetsweeper. They're phasing those out, too, so who know what is next for him?

Both my FIL and my father, are in chronic pain from longtime heavy manual work.

If they think they might be good at it and enjoy it, I don't see why not. I agree with PPs that a lot of plumbers, brickies I know suffer from bad backs but then do many people who've eg played rugby, tennis etc - except that bad backs = no work where an element of manual work is part of your job. The money and work is good and if you're an early riser, organised and prepared to keep doing the exams to keep your skills up, you can parlay yourself into your own business or contracting.

Absolutely. Any of the construction trades are in demand. Hard work but a good living to be made.

I encourage children to do these careers all the time. They'll all earn more money than me. If I could go back and start again, I'd do a trade. Unfortunately, my own children aren't interested.