Becoming a Construction Assessor – Are you a Dean?
You’ve been in the trade for too many years now. You’ve got a bad back and your knees are going stiff. You still want to be involved in construction, but not as hands-on anymore. You sound like someone else we know… have you thought about becoming a construction assessor?
Are you a Dean?
Early Life of a Construction Worker
Meet Dean. Dean is a 46-year-old workaholic who, from a young age, wanted to follow in the footsteps of his dad and granddad who were builders. He has worked in construction his whole life. It all started with him completing his Level 3 in Bricklaying at his local college, many moons ago. He now has just shy of 30 years’ experience under his belt.
Dean’s career has been eventful to say the least… From working for national construction companies, to becoming a very proud owner of his very own business.
He has been lucky to enough to travel the world building. His favourite places to build were in Nice and Monaco. He even drove all the way there in his big red transit van with all the tools in the back. Although he expected it to take much longer, he arrived in a very proud time of 13 hours. That even includes a good 30 minutes being stuck in a car park entrance due to his van being too high to fit under… Ever since working in the South of France he likes to visit at least twice a year, with the dream of retiring there in years to come.
In Recent Years…
Dean loves the flexibility and free reign of being his own boss; especially when he has the chance to go down the pub early on a Friday afternoon after a hard weeks graft. Occasionally, Dean takes his wife and two daughters away shopping for the weekend. Now, Dean is a family man and he loves spending time with them. But he will be the first to admit that shopping isn’t one of his favourite pastimes. After all, in his eyes, it means less beer tokens and precious hours sat in the pub!
The hard work, long hours and the rainy British weather is starting to take its toll on Dean’s body. With a bad back and a dodgy ankle, Dean feels like he needs to slow down with age. Just like his (once) trusty red van did. In fact, sadly Dean’s old transit has now completely conked out and has been replaced with a shiny new silver one! It served him well.
Anyway, Dean himself still wants to be a part of the construction world, but just not so much on the physical side. All he knows is that whatever he does, he wants flexibility.
Becoming a Construction Assessor – The Light Bulb Moment
Whilst down the pub on a sunny Saturday afternoon, one of Dean’s mates was talking about a friend of his who has just completed some course. At first, Dean was more interested in the results that were coming through from the 3 o’clock kick offs, but then he heard;
“Yeah, it sounds really good! He did this course with some company called Brooks and Kirk, I think it was. Only took him a few months like and that was all he needed to do. Now, he just spends his days driving around different sites and training the new lads looking to get their green CSCS cards.”
Dean’s ears pricked up instantly. He wanted to know who this guy was, what this job was all about, what the course was that he mentioned. Oh, and who “Kirks and Brook” (as the slightly tipsy Dean recollected) are? Although Dean’s friend wasn’t very insightful in his answers, he did mention that the job his friend was doing was ‘an NVQ Assessor’.
Next thing you know, a few Google searches, a couple of phone calls and one week later, Dean was ready. He signed up to the Level 3 Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement (CAVA) with Brooks and Kirk. This was all he needed to become an assessor in Construction.
The Assessing Life…
Fast forward a year, Dean is now a freelance assessor in Construction. He thought he was enjoying life before, but he couldn’t be more chuffed with his new job. By becoming an assessor, Dean is able to put all of his skills and knowledge that he has built up (no pun intended) over the years into practice.
He helps others starting out in the trade by assessing and training them so that they can achieve their qualifications. Also, because he is working as a freelance assessor, he has the flexibility that he was looking for. He can basically do as many hours as he likes or arrange his working week around his life, so that he can spend more time with his family and mates down the pub.
If you feel like you can relate to Dean’s story then please get in touch! Whether you would like more information about the CAVA Assessor Course or you would just like to find out more about what an assessor does, we would be more than happy to help. Give us a call on 01205 805 155 or send an email to training@brooksandkirk.ac.uk.
Steve is a Chartered Manager and a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.
He provides Educational Consultancy to the 19+ sector as well as being an Assessor, IQA, EPA and Digital Marketing Professional. When not doing any of these he finds time, every now and then, to write blogs and articles.