Once the project is underway and the project managers are making their purchases of materials, equipment and labour, it’s vital to ensure the costs do not unexpectedly escalate out of known control and thus make the project unprofitable.
Whilst the Estimators have created their “estimates”, actual purchase costs by Project Managers can sometimes be more or less than planned, and is known as a “variation”. Costs can be huge in the construction industry, running from hundreds of thousands of pounds to millions; any cost that is higher than expected can be a very, very expensive error. Similarly, if more labour time is needed than planned, the consequences can be very costly. For this reason, to keep costs and labour time under tight control, they are frequently observed and tracked by Quantity Surveyors. If you are good at maths and love keeping details under control, this job is for you!
The Quantity Surveyor tracks the ongoing material costings and labour resource costs of all the projects, making sure that the Project Managers are operating to budget and reducing budget risks. They also ensure legal and quality compliance of the materials used in installation. They will work closely with the Project Managers, ensuring a smooth delivery of the project. The Quantity Surveyor is a costings expert and will therefore have a deeply familiar background with the trade’s skills and equipment used. They often come into the profession by first being an electrician or plumber, meaning this is another role that can be climbed up on the career ladder or via university where specific training is offered. Apprenticeship schemes are also available. Whilst the role has similarities to the Estimator, the Quantity Surveyor’s role is broader, tracking the project with real-time precision, as it moves along the timeline, communicating with different stakeholders (the people who are in any way an important part of the project, whether a client or a co-worker) and providing ongoing budget guidance/reporting.
One of the greatest improvements within the construction industry over the years is in health and safety, protecting the lives of those working in potentially dangerous building sites.
There are now extremely strict regulations in place to ensure building site workers return safely, uninjured to their homes and families. To ensure legal compliance to all these regulations and safety requirements a company like DL M&E Building Services will have a SHEQ Manager: SHEQ is an acronym for Safety, Health, Environment and Quality.
It’s vital that any construction company knows all the rules and regulations concerning health and safety. The SHEQ manager will put together the SHEQ policies and ensure they are communicated throughout the company. The SHEQ manager will visit and monitor construction site activity, providing feedback and implementing improvements. It’s the job of the SHEQ manager to cultivate compliance to all the company’s health and safety rules ensuring the highest standards are met. Employment routes to this vary, such as by traditional educational means, or it’s even possible to retrain into this area as an adult, gaining the necessary qualifications. It’s an excellent career that will always reward those with a passion for ensuring quality of working environment. This suits a person that is organised, detailed, has capacity to absorb large amounts of regulatory information and enjoys administration.
You’ve already seen the planning that goes into preparing a project for installation of building services. To turn the design into a completed project we need our installation teams.
There are many kinds of skills needed but the core roles are:
As the name implies, a qualified electrician will have certification and skills to install a wide range of equipment, from lighting to heating. Qualified electricians can become one of the most highly paid careers in construction.
These are electricians not yet fully qualified and are learning on the job under the supervision of a qualified electrician. It’s possibly to quickly upskill to qualified status with dedication and hard work and enjoy the fruits of a secure salary for this in-demand role.
These roles work on water, gas and boiler systems. Plumbing engineers and pipe fitters can specialise in complex hot and cold water systems, and plumbers both in gas central heating systems as well as in drainage, sanitation and fixtures. It is possible to upskill from these positions to senior management positions, i.e. a Mechanical Quantity Surveyor.
These will install the air conditioning (AC) pipework and AC units.
Air is moved in and out of building spaces through a variety of air ducting systems. The ventilation engineer installs these ducting systems.
This is one of the most respected positions within a company and within the industry, reflecting a lifelong passion and experience in hands-on construction work. The Foreman has a knowledge of all areas of construction happening on site and works closely with the Project Manager to ensure smooth co-ordination from the design through to the completed installation. The Foreman manages a team of electricians and engineers to fulfil the project, co-ordinates material needs and reports risks and issues directly to the Project Manager should they arise. Career wise, if you are a life-long construction worker, love the lifestyle and the job, and enjoy leading a team, then you can expect to be a likely candidate as a Foreman in the future, offering excellent salary earning potential.
Working on construction sites is hugely rewarding, both in seeing the work of your hands creating something needed together with a generous salary package, but what many enjoy is the comradery of working in a team of likeminded others. You also get to travel and see different parts of the country.
There are other on-site specialist labour requirements for alarm systems, acoustics and suchlike, which are all other skills that you can explore as a career.
These steps are a simplified overview of some of the core activities that makes an M&E services company work. But there are other layers of employment opportunity within construction that isn’t directly involved in the construction process, but is included and supports the business of construction:
There’s a variety of roles within administration, such as managing the fleet of vehicles labourers use, managing contract filing, processing job applications, assisting directors, etc. These positions welcome people who love to keep things organised. You don’t have to be from a construction background, as often training is given.
With a busy company dealing with many projects and buying lots of materials you need an accounts department that can keep track of all the payment transactions. Accounts keep an eagle eye on every single financial transaction that happens, ensuring there is a receipt or invoice for it and categorising it. Every penny spent must be explained in some way. This is the job of the accountant. Payroll is the system of calculating and paying salaries. In the world of construction many labourers work over-time and have travel expenses, and these all need calculating come pay-day. If you are a process person, you will enjoy these administrational roles.
Even within the roles of administration, longstanding support and commitment to the business can be rewarded with the offer of more senior roles that offer higher wage structures, such as Office Manager.
We started looking out at the sprawling vastness of human-made infrastructure and taken you on a journey, zooming into a significant part of it: Mechanical and Electrical services. You will have seen that starting out as an electrician doesn’t mean you always have to be an electrician, though you can be! Your experience and knowledge can eventually be upskilled to office management roles such as Estimating, Quantity Surveying, Project Managing, or developing onsite to Foreman. As well as the higher paid roles which reflects the level of responsibility for the profitability of the company, there are also lower salary band jobs, which can be perfect for those who prefer to work under less pressure but feel a valued part of a team. There are also options if from a university background that has specialised in construction – it’s not uncommon for electricians to upskill by doing a university course alongside being a trainee in a company.
DL M&E Building Services is a company that works with some of the most recognisable companies in the UK. The projects can take you all over the UK, offering work with a diverse range of activity.
We have limited available places each year for apprenticeships in different roles within DL M&E Building Services. View our website's career page to see current openings. Or simply leave us a message registering your interest and we will contact you when a new opportunity arises.
Making headway in life we all have hopes and dreams, some of which can feel limited by current circumstances. We hope this guide has encouraged you to see that no matter how you start out in life, there is always a way to climb upwards, so long as you are positive, humble, and keen to learn and grow in your training, enthusiastic and show a strong desire to be the best version of yourself. It’s important to have one eye on the present and another eye on the future. Don’t put two eyes on the present, or two eyes on the future as this will make life hard for you to grow. Be present in where you are and invest time to grow and prove your skills, and use the above information to help you plan where you want to be in the future.
We hope this tour through M&E careers in construction has opened your eyes to the wide opportunities available in the construction industry and explained the different pathways to get there. Every construction company is looking for people that learn the trade and want to bring their best.
