Career Development Programmes

4 Career development programmes

We can offer career development programmes across all areas of Kier, within a wide variety of trade, technical and business support roles. This is a great way to start building your career within your chosen area.

Entry routes

Whatever your level of education, there are opportunities to create your own unique career path, with progression routes to suit you, your skills and your personal circumstances.

Which entry path is right for you?

1. Apprenticeships

Our apprenticeships come in all shapes and sizes.

Kier offer intermediate, advanced and higher level apprenticeship programmes. The programme duration varies between 12 months and four years, depending on the subject and level of qualifications on entry.

Throughout your programme you will have regular support from your apprenticeship tutor to achieve a nationally recognised qualification. When not studying or training, you will work with experienced mentors to put into practice what they have learnt, gaining valuable experience in the industry.

We have a wide variety of roles, either based on site or in our offices. Here is a selection of the apprenticeship programmes Kier can deliver:

The programme duration varies between 12 months and four years

2. Kier Degree Programme

The Kier Degree Programme offers a great opportunity to combine studying with earning a competitive salary and gaining valuable work experience.

In total the Kier Degree Programme takes an average of four and a half years to complete and leads to a recognised BSc qualification with Sheffield Hallam University. Many of our Kier Degree Programme graduates also progress to gain a place on Kier’s Graduate Development Programme. There are two main qualification routes on offer:

BSc Construction and Commercial Management
BSc Quantity Surveying and Commercial Management

Two main qualification paths:

Construction management

As a construction manager, you would be the main technical advisor on a construction site, liaising with subcontractors, planners, quantity surveyors and operatives to ensure that the project runs smoothly, safely, according to the plans and on-target. The degree also serves as a great foundation for a wide variety of construction related management roles in Kier.

Quantity surveying

As a quantity surveyor, you would play a key role in a building project, managing the costs from the early design plans, through to the building’s completion. Your priorities would be to make sure that projects meet legal and quality standards and that clients get good value for money.

During and after completion of the Kier Degree Programme, our trainees work in a variety of job roles including:

Project management
Quantity surveying
Business development
Site management
BIM (Building Information Modelling – using technology to design buildings and infrastructure projects)
Health and safety
Planning
Estimating

In total the Kier Degree Programme takes an average of four and a half years to complete

Kier's partnership with Sheffield Hallam University:

We have partnered with Sheffield HallamUniversity to create two industry leading degree courses in Construction Management and Quantity Surveying, which combine academic study with paid on-the-job training. As well as construction-specific learning, you’ll gain other skills in communication, team working and project management.

Each year on the Kier Degree Programme, you will spend four weeks at university, learning alongside your peers as well as enjoying student life. For the rest of the year you will be working alongside Kier professionals who will be there to support you throughout your degree and in all aspects of your professional and personal development.

A great student city
Sheffield Hallam University is one of the most popular universities in the UK, with over 11,000 part-time students currently making it one of the biggest providers of part-time study.

More than 50,000 students live in Sheffield. It’s safe, green, lively, inexpensive and probably one of the best places in the UK to be a student. It’s easy to have a great night out on a budget in Sheffield. As a student you’ll get discounts in shops, cinemas, bars and restaurants.

Central location
Look on a map and you’ll find that Sheffield is actually right in the middle of the UK, with great transport links. The city itself is served by excellent bus services – and the famous Supertram. Sheffield Hallam University’s campus is right in the heart of the city, just five minutes from the railway station and easily accessible by car from the M1.

3. Kier Graduate Development Programme

The Kier Graduate Development Programme will give you a combination of:

Practical on the job experience
Formal technical and commercial learning from some of the sectors leading experts
First line management skills
Professional mentor support towards achieving professional qualifications

This is a structured three year programme and provides the tools and experience to qualify for membership of a chosen professional body at post-graduate level (eg Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors or Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development for HR). We offer mentoring support throughout the programme, helping you to navigate through a chosen career path.

2015 graduates at their residential
induction in the lake district

Our Graduate Development Programme is open to those interested in building their careers in a range of areas including:

Construction management
Quantity surveying and commercial
Engineering
Human resources

We also offer conversion programmes for those transitioning into construction from other related degree programmes, including generic science, finance, mathematics or engineering degrees.

4. Work experience and undergraduate placements

Kier supports the communities in which we operate by offering work experience to GCSE and A-level students interested in the construction industry and related services.

We also offer unpaid work experience placements to some disadvantaged members of our community and those looking to transition into the sector, enabling them to gain employment related skills and help them in securing a paid role.

This is a great opportunity to see what it would be like to work for Kier and may help you decide on your subjects for further study. It can also help you gain an understanding of different roles before you decide on your chosen career path.

Work experience placements typically range from 1 day to 6 weeks, whilst undergraduates will often spend up to 12 months with us, normally on their third year of a ‘sandwich placement’ degree.

We offer summer and sandwich year placements to undergraduates considering joining us after graduation.

Placements are available in a range of departments and disciplines and usually arranged in partnership with specialist universities offering relevant degree subjects and selected local schools and colleges.

Throughout the work experience or undergraduate placement we ensure that you are supported by skilled professional mentors and are given a thorough induction, including instruction on health and safety matters.

Our work experience and placement students find the experience hugely beneficial in securing a job when they finish their studies, with many choosing to apply to Kier.

We also offer selected eligible students sponsorship for their final year at University following their undergraduate placement, if completing a relevant degree at one of our selected universities.