Balfour Beatty Construction Limted
information

Balfour Beatty Construction recruits a wide range of professionals, graduates and trainees. Below you will find some useful information on what is expected from you and how the recruitment process operates.

Experienced Professional [top]

Balfour Beatty Construction recruits experienced professionals at all levels, including:

  • Site Engineers
  • Site Quantity Surveyors
  • Section Engineers
  • Senior Quantity Surveyors
  • Sub-Agents/Agents
  • Project Managers
  • Commercial Managers
  • Estimators
  • Planners
  • Bid Managers

Specific vacancies are advertised in the construction press or can be found on this site.

 

Graduates [ top]

We seek to recruit the best graduates as our senior managers of the future. There are opportunities across the UK.

Our graduate training programme, combining structured, on-the-job experience with a variety of off-the-job courses, is one of the best in the industry for those who wish to achieve both management responsibility and chartered status.

All graduates join the Professional Competence Scheme and progression is entirely on achievement and merit.

Ideally you will have a degree in:

  • Architecture/Architectural Technology
  • Building/Construction Management
  • Civil Engineering
  • Quantity Surveying/Commercial Management

We recruit graduates from these disciplines every year who wish to train in the following specialisms:

  • Commercial Management
  • Design Management
  • Site/Project Management

However, we are keen to hear from those with non-built environment degrees who wish to enter the construction industry on our commercial or site management training schemes and undertake a conversion course.

We occasionally have opportunities in the Administration, Business Development, IT and Personnel Departments – these will be advertised when they arise.

 

Placement Students [top]

If you are studying for a degree in:

  • Architectural Technology
  • Building/Construction Management
  • Civil Engineering
  • Quantity Surveying/Commercial Management

then we can offer placements for both summer vacations and sandwich years across the UK.

Industrial Placement/Sandwich Year

A successful year out with us can lead to final year sponsorship and a graduate position. Around two thirds of our graduate intake each year have done a placement with us in the past.

All Year Out students join the Professional Competence Scheme and should achieve a CSCS Gold card during the placement, as well as contributing to their professional training (CIOB, ICE or RICS) and giving them a head start when they graduate.

Vacation Placement

For those whose course does not include a full year out we can offer summer vacation placements of at least 8 weeks' duration.

 

Day Release Trainees [top]

Rather than graduating thousands of pounds in debt and with limited work experience there is now an exciting alternative way to gain your degree – earn while you learn.

If you wish to study for a degree in:

  • Architectural Technology
  • Building/Construction Management
  • Civil Engineering
  • Quantity Surveying/Commercial Management

then you can join our training scheme in:

  • Commercial Management
  • Design Management
  • Site/Project Management

and study for your degree one day a week.

You will spend four days a week at work on a construction site and a day a week at university with the tuition fees paid by us. It will take five years to get your degree and in that time you will also gain NVQs and move up the career ladder.

All Day Release Trainees join the Professional Competence Scheme and progression is entirely on achievement and merit.

You will need to be expecting A-levels/Highers/AVCE with at least 240 UCAS points or an ONC/HNC in construction.

 

Application Process and Selection Criteria [top]

Graduates and Placement Students should apply online through the main Balfour Beatty website at www.balfourbeatty.com/graduates

If you are interested in a Day Release Trainee position, please visit our current vacancies to see if there are any opportunities available.

All application forms and CVs will be acknowledged and reviewed. If your application is of interest to us then we will invite you to an initial selection session at your university or one of our local offices. This will take the form of four aptitude tests designed to assess your suitability and potential for a career in construction.

If you are successful in these tests then you will have a first interview with a member of the HR Department, again at your university or one of our local offices. The final interview will be with an appropriate senior manager from the specialism for which you are applying. If you are made an offer of employment then it will specify the area in which you will be working, the salary and benefits and details of holidays etc.

If you accept, it will be up to you to specify a starting date as we know that exams finish at different times and you may wish to have a break before starting work. As projects are starting and finishing all the time, you may not be informed of precisely which site you will be starting on until about two weeks before your start date. We will send you full joining instructions beforehand.

Upon joining you will attend a Health and Safety Induction, a Company Induction and a Trainee Induction as part of your initial training.

 

Professional Competence Scheme [top]

The Professional Competence Scheme (PCS) is designed for those entering the Company and industry for the first time.

There are three entry points:

  1. Leaving school with A-levels/Highers/AVCEs
  2. A one year Industrial Placement as part of a sandwich degree
  3. Graduation with a Bachelor’s/Master’s degree

The PCS is designed to achieve:

  • The competence required to perform in the workplace
  • Evidence of that competence via the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS)
  • A structured route to managerial responsibility at a pace commensurate with individual ability, experience and motivation
  • Accredited experience to enable application for membership of the appropriate professional body

The scheme is based around the concept of competence-based assessment.

Competence-based assessment is assessment of actual performance at work.This means that you have to ensure that you not only have the knowledge and understanding to carry out the activities defined in the Scheme but can also put them into practice at work. The competence-based approach, while still assessing what you know, also assesses what you can do.

The common factor in all the routes within the scheme is the achievement of higher level NVQs.

Trainees will progress according to their performance, ability and motivation.