Hey Ladies! We know many of you have started the new academic year, so we thought it would be good for us to share career skills you can focus on developing whilst studying! The Construction Industry is filled with various roles which require similar skills. Mastering these 6 can help you ease into whatever role you end up journeying into:
1. Teamworking
This skill is needed for many project teams in the industry. A construction project has members of different departments such as Development, Design/Technical, Commercial, Operations and Pre-Construction. They all need to work together so a project can be built progressively.
You can practice this skill through group projects you’re given with other students. Depending on your experience, you may not have worked with people before, so use these opportunities to stretch your relationship building and collaboration skills!
2. Communication
Now this is vital! Communicating is not about shouting loudly or wanting to be heard, it’s literally being able to transfer information clearly so the listener/receiver can understand! Communication is either done by speaking or writing. Depending on the career role you choose in the industry, you’ll likely have to communicate via meetings, calls or emails to people such as clients, subcontractors, suppliers, design consultants, local authorities and more!
You can practice this skill with your lecturer, course mates, new friendships etc. You can also practice this through your assignments where you need to explain topics clearly for the reader to understand. Practices like this will help you grow more into your communication ability!
Relationship building relies on good communication. In the industry, being open, honest and professional helps establish trust and good rapport between yourself and colleagues, clients, consultants and more. Active listening is also a valuable skill to develop as you’ll know what to communicate based on listening to the needs of the speaker/writer!
3. Attention to detail
Having an eye for detail is needed in many roles and activities such as programme planning, design coordination, project pricing and more.
With this skill comes patience, as you can imagine the amount of time it takes to review detailed information or inspect a completed apartment. For example, Reviewing drawings as a Design Consultant or updating a commercial spreadsheet can really test your patience, so it’s good to develop patience through your assignments, essays, submissions etc.
You can practice this skill by taking notes during lectures or meetings with your personal tutor, so you don’t miss out key details for your module or assignments etc. You can even start by making daily to-do lists to help you become more familiar with paying close attention to detail.
4. Organisation
Organisation is the key to managing your time and activities. It also helps you make your day productive so you don’t waste your energy. If you can master this from now then that is good!
Construction project activities are all planned onto a programme, so many job roles need time management and organisation skills to help them meet project programme dates.
You can develop this through your management of assignments you need to produce, deadline dates and exam revision periods!
Make use of resources to assist you with your management! If you’re more tech savvy, use apps on your phone or laptop.. If you’re more of a person who needs to write things down, use a wall planner or journal planner with colour codes for deadlines! There are many tools out there to help you. Look out for our upcoming tools too launching ;) Join our community to get the first drop notification!
5. Problem Solving
The Construction industry is full of problem solving situations from Design, Financial, Site build and more. Being proactive helps you a lot during problem solving situations and most times you’ll have to push out of your comfort zone. Not sure about something? ask questions instead of waiting for something. There’s someone around who knows.
As a student, you can practice this whenever you come across personal or academic challenges. For most of you, the topics taught and assignments given are new to you, so ask all the questions you need! Be proactive in doing research too so you can understand more.
6. IT Software Skills!
As a basic foundation, many roles in the industry will require you to at least use Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Many contractors or subcontractors also have project management software's they use throughout projects (however they will usually train you on this!).
For design related careers such as Architecture or Engineering, there are various design and collaboration software's they use to help them with their work - as a student, it would be good for you to gain insight into these depending on your area of interest!
We are also working on partnerships to provide insight courses for these ;) Join our community to get the first drop notification and even discounts!
We hope this Article will help you during your journey in the industry! No matter the area you choose to journey into, these skills are great to grow into and master! If you have any questions or want further advice, drop us a question here and our team will get in touch! :)
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