What exactly could I do?

Construction, engineering, information technology and skilled trades are examples of the career options you could have. Here's more about them.

Construction

Construction includes buildings (factories, houses, offices, hospitals, schools and so on) and civil engineering (roads, sewers, bridges, tunnels, railways).

Architectural technologists ensure that designs on paper work in practice by surveying the surrounding environment, analysing drawings, using CAD (computer aided design) programmes, organising materials and inspecting building sites.

Building control surveyors make sure buildings conform to building regulations. This includes the depth of foundations, energy conservation and structural stability.

CAD (computer aided design) technicians use computer generated drawings to prepare information for construction jobs. This can involve working across a wide range of fields, including architecture, building services, building, civil and structural engineering.

Carpenters and joiners make and install the wooden parts of buildings and other structures including floorboards, windows and doors.

Chartered surveyors co-ordinate commercial buildings from start to finish. Building surveyors advise on the design and construction of new buildings and the repair and renovation of existing ones. Construction surveyors oversee various construction projects, from dams to new houses.

Construction managers take charge of people and plans to ensure buildings are completed safely, on time and within budget.

Electricians inspect, test and install wiring systems and equipment. The type of work will vary depending on their specialist training and expertise.

Painters and decorators paint and decorate interiors and exteriors of houses, offices and other buildings. They also paint outdoor structures like bridges, ships or oil rigs.

Plasterers can do either solid plastering - applying wet finishes to walls, ceilings and floors; or get involved in fibrous plastering - making ornamental plasterwork to use on the ceilings of decorative buildings etc.

Plumbers provide an essential service for householders and businesses. They install and maintain hot and cold water supplies in houses, and work on air-conditioning and extraction systems in other buildings.

Scaffolders erect systems using metal tubes, connections, fittings, specially made units and wooden or metal platforms for people to work from.

Stonemasons use considerable skill to repair old buildings and create new ones, using both modern and traditional tools. You can choose to specialise in either restoration or new build areas.

Technicians work at a level between craft and management. They may be based on a building site or in an office drawing up plans and schedules.

Wall and floor tilers use coloured and textured tiles to decorate the inside of buildings. The job is very varied - you could be working on a bathroom down the road or jetting off abroad to fix tiles to a factory interior.

Back to top

Engineering

Aerospace engineers help with the design, development, testing and maintenance of civil and military fixed wing and rotary aircrafts, missiles and satellites.

Chemical engineers help change raw materials into products. For example, in processing environments they develop raw materials into products such as paper, cosmetics, food, drugs, textiles, fuel and metals.

Civil engineers use a mixture of science, imagination and technology. Involves areas such as construction (building sports stadiums or shopping malls), transport (building railways, roads, bridges and traffic studies) and power (developing hydroelectric schemes, dams, oil rigs and pipelines).

Electrical engineers research, develop and operate electrical machinery and equipment, communications systems, lighting, heating and refrigeration of offices, factories and homes.

Materials engineers design, develop and improve materials such as metals and ceramics. They develop and test things including structural materials for construction and automotive materials for cars.

Mechanical engineers apply their engineering skills to the design, construction and application of an almost endless range of machinery.

Back to top

Information Technology

Business analysts, systems analysts and business consultants are a range of business people with IT knowledge (or vice versa) who are able to identify areas of business that could be improved by the use of IT.

Systems architects, Information architects determine the broad concepts and overall design of a potential IT solution, or set of solutions. They may also take the lead in determining a company's IT strategy.

Systems engineers, technical consultants and technical specialists build IT solutions from standard components (i.e. products).

Software developers, system developers, programmers, web developers, software designers and network designers are people who design and develop the products in product companies. In service companies or in-house IT departments they design and write customer-specific software where there is no standard product appropriate to the solution.

Service technicians, Technical specialists and Network specialists - once a system is in use, technical people keep it working. They monitor networks, servers, software applications, workstations and internet connections and solve technical problems.

System administrators control the use of systems e.g. give usernames to new users, take back-ups, control access privileges.

Computer operators, Operations specialists, System operators and Media librarians operate traditional mainframe computers in data centres. Knowledge of the computer system is important, as is the ability to follow work processes.

Service delivery managers have overall responsibility for the effectiveness of the IT service.

Technical support and Help desk roles focus on the users rather than the system. They work on-site, or over the phone in a call centre, resolving problems experienced by users.

Maintenance engineers and mobile engineers work on their own, within a service level agreement, visiting customers to repair failed computers by replacing the failing component (e.g. hard disk).

Consultants give (or sell) advice, based on their areas of expertise. They may advise or assist in any of the areas described above.

Back to top