Our client is a specialised civil engineering and groundwork construction company based in Birmingham, UK. They operate throughout the southern and central regions of England.
The company is expanding rapidly and has the following vacancies:
- Shuttering carpenters
- Excavator operators
- Pipelayers (below ground)
Remuneration and benefits
The company pays their tradespeople £13/hr and require them to work 45 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. This equates to £30,420 per annum (at the current exchange rate of R19.50 to £1, this equates to approximately R590 000 per annum).
The company provides transport to/from site.
Essential Requirements
You MUST have at least 5 years experience as a shuttering carpenter, excavator operator or underground pipelayer
You MUST have worked for recognised civil engineering construction companies
In order to get a UK work permit you MUST be residing in South Africa and MUST be either a South African citizen or have the legal right to work in South Africa.
About the Company
The company has approximately 40 permanent employees and up to 80 sub-contract employees. It typically has 10-15 projects on the go at any one time.
Although each project has its own unique characteristics, a typical site team may consist of a Construction Supervisor, 1-2 Excavator Operators, 1-2 Carpenters/Steelfixers, 1-2 Pipelayers (stormwater pipes, manhole chambers, etc).
The cost of labour in the UK is expensive and as a result, UK contractors make greater use of machinery. The most common item of machinery on an UK groundworks construction site is an excavator. Besides the more traditional uses like digging trenches and excavating pits, excavators are also used to lift heavy items like kerb blocks, generators, reinforced steel, etc. Excavator Operators therefore need to have more precise motor skills than are the case in South Africa.
Since they work in small teams, employees have to multitask and the shuttering carpenters will often be called upon to do their own steelfixing.
In addition to the permanent personnel on site, the company also has roving teams that do concrete, screeding, asphalt, compaction, curb-laying and paving. They travel from site-to-site depending on where and when they are needed.
Typical jobs would be to 1) prepare the groundworks for a shopping centre and then doing the curbing, paving and initial floor slab, 2) do the infrastructure for an office park (groundworks with reticulation, access roads, parking, landscaping) and 3) construct a drainage channel on a floodplain.
They are normally complete projects within 1-3 months. The things that slow down their works include traffic accommodation and working in-between other contractors.
As with all construction in the UK, safety standards are high and there is a lot of regulatory administration involved with each site.
The Recruitment Process
A job offer will depend on you getting a work visa which in turn depends on 1) having a clean criminal record, 2) displaying a minimum level of English language proficiency, and 3) obtaining a tuberculosis clearance certificate.
The entire process takes about 4 months to complete from the time you are made an offer.
Applications
To apply for one of the above positions you will need to email a suitable CV together with a covering letter explaining why you should be considered.
A “suitable CV” should have at least the following:
- full biographical information (first name, surname, age, gender, citizenship status, residential address)
- contact information (phone, WhatsApp, email)
- highest education level
- full employment details (including the start and end dates of employment, company names, your position, and what kind of work you did)
- three contactable references of people you reported to.
Email your application to jobs@built.co.za