What is Civil Engineering?
Civil Engineering is part of the construction industry; it is the design, construction and maintenance of infrastructure. Infrastructure is works like roads, bridges, tunnels, railways, runways and coastal walls.
Civil Engineering is not the construction of houses or commercial buildings such as schools, hospitals, or shopping centres.
Many people in the civil engineering/construction industry have started out as a General Operative before progressing into other roles so it’s a great way to start your career. Working as an Apprentice General Operative you will be getting hands on from day one, being outdoors working on projects on behalf of JN Bentley’s clients. This will involve working on a wide range of civil engineering schemes such as service reservoirs, waste water treatment works, pipelines and flood defence schemes. Clients include Anglian Water, Environment Agency and United Utilities.
You will be assigned a mentor, an employee at JN Bentley who will be there throughout your training to provide support, to assist in observations, and assist in setting the day to day work.
As well as learning onsite you will have one day a week of classroom training in small groups with other apprentices.
Day to day you will be based on one or more of JN Bentley’s projects throughout your time on the apprenticeship.
An example of one the recent projects is Jackson’s Edge Service Reservoir. Have a read below about the work J N Bentley carried out.
Location: Disley, Manchester
Client: United Utilities
Value: £8.4m
Summary: A new 18ML capacity, twin compartment service reservoir built on the site of an existing 103 year old structure at Jackson’s Edge has provided increased security to the water supply network.
The new structure is the first precast service reservoir that client United utilities has ever built and the first that Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB) has constructed and commissioned in two stages.
To minimise our impact on the environment and local communities during the construction of the reservoir, a ‘Design for Manufacture and Assembly’ (DfMA) approach was used. This meant that much of the structure could be manufactured off site to reduce the amount of time on site. In total, 126 wall units, 132 beams, 120 columns and 400 roof slabs were precast in factory conditions away from site before being delivered and carefully crane-lifted into position.
What will I be doing?
If you enjoy practical work and want a job outdoors, then working on a construction site could be for you. To be a construction operative, you will need a good level of fitness. You will need a basic knowledge of building methods and materials.
At the start of a job, you would help to prepare the site, for example putting up site huts, unloading and storing building materials.
Once the project gets underway, your duties could include:
Groundworking – marking out and digging shallow trenches for foundations and drains
Formworking – putting up or dismantling the shuttering that holds setting concrete in place
Steel fixing – bending and fixing the bars used to reinforce concrete structures
Steel piling – fixing steel sheets together to form temporary retaining walls for excavation work
Concreting – layering and smoothing concrete for foundations, floors and beams
Road working – concreting, laying kerbs, paving and re-surfacing.
You would use various hand, power and machine tools and, with further training, you could operate construction plant equipment, such as dumper trucks or excavators.
What are JN Bentley’s previous apprentices doing now?
Apprenticeships opportunities have been offered for a number of years at JN Bentley and have led to rewarding careers for many young people.
Previous apprentice Jordon joined the company 6 years ago as an apprentice and now works as a Site Engineer and is now working towards an additional qualification in civil engineering, attending university one day a week.
Another former Apprentice at JN Bentley Tom, joined the company 8 years ago as General Construction Operative Apprentice and now works for the business as a Site Engineer. He is now studying towards an additional qualification in civil engineering and is currently enrolled on JN Bentley’s dedicated Engineering Development Scheme, working towards becoming a charted engineering with the ICE (Institute of Civil Engineers).
Employee Benefits
As an employee at J N Bentley, as well as your weekly pay you will also receive a number of benefits including;
- Westfield Health
- Pension
- Life Insurance
- Turkey/voucher at Christmas
- Travel and fares (including being taken to site in a company van where possible)