Careers Early careers
Start here.
For school and college leavers, graduates, career changers and returners. Every door, window, fence and façade Watford Construction designs and installs depends on people who learned the work from the ground up.
Five questions, about a minute. Nothing is sent to us.
Things you could learn to do here
Pick the one you’d enjoy most. It starts the pathway finder with that answer.
Pathway finder
Work out where you fit.
Five quick questions, starting with where you are now. See the disciplines that suit you and the way in that fits. It’s a guide, not a test.
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Your answers stay in your browser. When your result appears, they’re added to the page address, so anyone you share that link with sees them too.
Career Disciplines
Nine kinds of work, and a day in each.
Rather look around than answer questions? See what each discipline involves, the skills it uses and how it connects to the others.
Explore Career DisciplinesYour first year
A first year, sketched out.
Illustrative
This is how we aim to shape a first year. Your own plan depends on the role, and we agree it with you.
Before day one
We tell you where to go, who to ask for, what to wear and what to bring. No surprises on the first morning.
Week one
Induction, with safety first. Meet the teams and see the whole range: buildings and garages, doors, fences and gates, pods, windows, façades, intelligent systems and Home Inclusive™.
The first months
Learn alongside an experienced colleague you can go to with any question. Small tasks, always checked, with time set aside for learning.
Around six months
Pieces of work of your own, at your pace. Feedback both ways, in plain words.
End of year one
Look back together and agree what comes next: more depth, a new skill, or a recognised qualification where one fits.
Supporting someone
For parents, carers and teachers.
If someone you know is weighing up the trades and professions behind a home, here’s what we’d want you to know.
Questions worth asking any employer
- Who will they learn from, day to day?
- How is safety handled for young people on site?
- Does the learning lead to a recognised qualification?
- What does a normal week look like?
- Who do they talk to if something isn’t right?
What you can ask us about
- Work experience for a pupil or student. We’ll be honest about what we can offer.
- A talk or Q&A for a class on how a home comes together, from drawing to installation.
- Any role we advertise, and what it really involves day to day.
- How we keep under-18s safe: before anyone under 18 joins us, we make sure our risk assessment covers the particular risks for young people, as UK health and safety law requires. For pupils below school-leaving age, we tell a parent or carer about the main risks and how we control them.
Independent advice
Free, impartial careers advice across the UK:
It depends on the role, and each advertised role says what it needs. For work you learn on the job, we look for curiosity, care and reliability, and we expect to teach you the rest. If a role needs a particular qualification or licence, the advert says so.
No. A few honest lines about you are enough to start a conversation: where you are now, what you enjoy and what you’ve done so far. School, work, hobbies, volunteering and caring all count. If you have a CV, attach it in your email app.
Not as fixed schemes with set intakes or deadlines. We’re building routes into the company for people early in their careers, shaped around real roles. When a role opens, it appears on Search jobs. You’re welcome to write to us before then.
No. It means early in this kind of work, at any age. Career changers and people coming back after a break are just as welcome.
Yes. In the UK an apprenticeship is a real job: apprentices are employees with a contract and paid holiday, and are entitled to at least the National Minimum Wage apprentice rate (or the rate for their age, once they are 19 or over and past their first year). The pay and terms of any role with us are set out when it’s advertised or offered.
Ask us. We’ll be honest about whether we can offer something safe and useful, and when. Before anyone under 18 joins us, we make sure our risk assessment covers the particular risks for young people, as UK health and safety law requires.
We aim to reply to every message we receive. If there isn’t a fit right now, we aim to tell you that plainly rather than leave you waiting.
Next
Start with one step.
- 01Take the five questionsAbout a minute. See which disciplines suit you, and your way in.
- 02Register your interestNo role that fits yet? Join the talent pool on Search jobs.
- 03Search jobsEvery role we advertise, in one place.
More in Careers
Careers homeCareer disciplinesExplore our regionsInclusion and diversityenquiries@watford-construction.com
Images on this page are concept visualisations. The early careers routes described here are being built: nothing on this page is a vacancy or an offer of employment. Watford Construction Limited.
