Beatrice goes on site at Coin Street

Beatrice spent two weeks getting to grips with all areas of contracting at Mansell’s major works division. She spent most of her time on site at an £11m residential scheme for the Coin Street Community Builders near Waterloo Station in London. David Stones, managing director of Mansell’s London Major Works Division, and human resources director Ray Ryan worked out a programme of events to give her an insight into construction, working alongside the trainee surveyors and the site manager based at Coin Street. This is her diary.

Week one

Monday Meeting with David Stones and Ray Ryan, who explain how contracts are won. I sit in on a tender meeting and am briefed on estimating, planning and marketing.

Tuesday Visit several sites with the health and safety inspector and the QS, checking that everything is safe. This is things like making sure handrails and ladders are in the right place.

Wednesday Touring about six sites with Kevin Atkinson, construction manager at Mansell London Major Works Division.

Thursday My first day at the Coin Street site. The Mansell senior project manager, John Horgan, gives me the background to the site and the client. I sit in on a meeting with the roofing subcontractor, the architect and Mansell’s design co-ordinator. This is a discussion, with the drawings, on how to manage all the fiddly bits. The architect explains what he wants it to look like and the subcontractors say whether they can build it or not.

Friday The site agent at Coin Street explains how concrete is poured, then I visit one of RMC’s concrete plants. It’s quite interesting. In the afternoon, back at Coin Street, I meet the senior surveyor who explains how they deal with tenders from specialists. I go out with a trainee surveyor to measure holes for concrete.

Week two

Monday I meet the client, Coin Street Community Builders. Later, I spend time with another surveyor measuring walls. He also explains how they choose subcontractors from the tenders.

Tuesday Spend the morning with the clerical assistant at Coin Street making about 40 phone calls to track down brochures on materials needed for the project, from tiles to things I had never heard of, like a product to tie back the roots on trees. In the afternoon, I visit the office of architect Haworth Tompkins to see a model of the site and see how CAD works.

Wednesday Spend the morning measuring the levels in the basement at Coin Street, which is really good because I actually do the measuring. Spend the afternoon with John Horgan, the senior project manager, going over what is happening on site.

Thursday Sit in on an interview with the specialist contractor that is waterproofing the terraces of the flats. Spend the afternoon with the trainee surveyors, who explain Mansell’s training programme.

Friday Last day. I go on a tour around the site to see how the job is progressing. I have a debrief with John Horgan for my views on how I liked working on a building site.

Will Beatrice take up a career in construction?

There is much more to it than I thought. I had no idea that there were surveyors on site or what they did. Until I worked with Mansell, I didn’t know there were so many different roles involved in a building project.

I enjoyed all of it. The whistlestop tour of all the sites was fun but the main thing was chatting to the people about what they did. The concrete plant was also interesting but that was partly because we went for a good lunch at All Bar One.

In terms of the jobs I saw, surveying interested me most. I like maths, so jobs such as evaluating which subcontractor offered the best value for money on a particular package appealed. I quite enjoyed the estimating as well, but it was too office-based. I like to be outdoors. When I was doing the estimating, I realised there was very little profit. The margins are pathetic.

One of the good things about it as a job is the variety. The fact that you don’t build a prototype of a building also makes it quite exciting.

I learned that it is definitely a “people industry” because there is so much interaction between all those professions, from architects to clerks of works to site operatives. The people that worked for Mansell and the others I met were all really friendly and chatty.

I was impressed with Mansell as a company. It seems to have a really thorough trainee programme and looks after the staff. Being a woman was not a problem. Women are much less common than men, but not rare. I did meet some female surveyors. A lot of the older males kept apologising for swearing in front of me but I don’t mind swearing. I did have my own loo, though.

I also feel that you couldn’t just jump in and manage a construction project with no experience of the industry. You do need to know things like how the bricklayers work. You would need to go through a training programme for the technical skills.

Another thing I noticed was that it didn’t seem to be very well paid. The managers have a really hard job. They have to go running out on to site in the rain a lot more than anyone else. If being a project manager is what you really want, perhaps money doesn’t matter. But it is mad that someone with responsibility for projects worth millions of pounds should get paid so little.

If it paid more, it could be a very competitive industry because it is so varied, which would appeal to a lot of people who don’t want to sit in an office all day.

My views on going into construction as a career haven’t really changed now that I have done the work experience. I wouldn’t rule it out, but I wouldn’t say it was the job for me either.

Would David Stones, managing director of Mansell’s London Major Works Division, employ Beatrice?

Having Beatrice working in the company went very well. We would have her back. She was very clever. This kind of snapshot approach is a good way to give those with an interest but no knowledge of the job an idea of what it is about.

We would consider taking graduates from other disciplines as surveyors and trainee managers. What any business wants is to have someone bright and keen. We can always help with the technical ability. But it would take a while for people who might want to launch into construction to get to grips with the technical side of things, which means graduates from other disciplines have to wait a few years to get the technical experience they need and a relevant salary.

She is right about the low salaries in the industry in general. Salary expectations are higher these days. You have to have a step-change because of that expectation. She is also right about the little profit we make. I find the small margins shocking, too.”