Do you want to build a future you’re proud of? The urban and suburban landscapes of our country have changed dramatically in the last seven years. You can forget about derelict homes or ghost estates; now a plethora of cranes protrude from our cityscapes, scaffolding adorns every other building, and the profits from breakfast roll sales have increased exponentially. Homes, offices, and amenities simple can’t be erected fast enough to meet our demands. So while this is not fantastic news for homebuyers, it’s certainly a lucrative situation from anyone working in the industry. Postgraduate courses in construction are the perfect choice for anyone looking for a rewarding, well-paid career with lots of scope for progression.
Bridge the Skills Deficit
Due to the recent surge in economic growth, there is a massive skills deficit when it comes to vital roles across the sector. If you are a qualified construction and quantity surveyor with BIM, an experienced project manager, or a talented tradesperson, you are hot property in the world of building property. If any of these are areas you can see a future for yourself in, now’s the perfect time to start your training. On a side note, there’s a deep irony in the fact that one of the major mitigating factors causing this problem is actually lack of affordable housing. Most companies have a hard time recruiting from overseas because the cost of rent here is too high.
The act of building is the coming together of many, many working parts. The roles you’d expect that need filling are in trades, engineering, architecture, labouring, planning, or supervision. However, you can’t have a large-scale project take place without administration support, legal representation, accountants, or human resources. Each of these careers has very different entry points and trajectories, however, the one unifying skill required, is the ability to work as part of a team.
Opportunities Available
The construction sector is in a period of massive growth, so now’s the time to buckle down and upskill as much as you can. Presently, there is an abundance of apprenticeships, training subsidies, and development/mentorship schemes; it’s up to you to make the most of them. As the old saying goes: ‘May hay while the sun shines’, or more aptly: ‘Get the damn roof done before it starts lashing.’ If you are diligent, capable and hard-working, the next few rungs on the career ladder are crying out for you.
The Irish sector is just one delicious option in a smorgasbord of professional opportunities. For anyone suffering from an incurable case of Wanderlust, there’s no better time to start googling ‘postgraduate courses in construction’. Companies across the globe are in desperate need for skilled, experienced construction workers to pitch in on projects in Canada, the UAE, Australia, or Mainland Europe. A qualification in this area could be your ticket to see the world and get paid handsomely in the process.
A Changing Industry
That iconic image of builders eating sambos on a steel girder hundreds of feet in the air is certainly an artifact of the past. Nowadays, any health and safety officer worth their salt would go into cardiac arrest attempting that risk assessment. Advancing technologies, updated systems and processes, teamed with new, snazzy equipment have completely overhauled the day-to-day duties on most sites. Meanwhile, drone technology, the internet of things, computer programmes, and virtual reality will be commonplace in the construction sector in the coming years.
For a number of reasons, addressing diversity and gender imbalances in this sector has been a slow process. While tech has been luring ladies into STEM roles thanks to Sharon Sandberg and ping pong tables, it’s a little more difficult when your most prominent media representation is an animated builder named ‘Bob’. Because of the outdated perceptions surrounding the industry, very few women chose construction as a career path. This is presently changing, however, as the industry’s major employers in Ireland are tackling this head-on; they are utilizing media campaigns, engaging in outreach to schools, implementing targeted strategies and training up their managers on ‘ unconscious bias’. The face of the construction sector is changing and the future is bright for everyone involved. Start working on your career blueprints today with a postgraduate course in construction studies.
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