Alan Landreth served in The Corps of Royal Engineers, for 24-years, leaving as a Staff Sergeant in 2023. “My primary trade was Plant Operator but as I moved up through the ranks to become a manager of both people and stores. My SQMS role was managing a group of people who supported the Sqn in logistics and stores, ensuring demands were placed, managed and delivered once arrived.
I am now a Health & Safety Advisor for Kier Construction. I registered with BuildForce initially, after my career chat we worked through a few career options, and they connected me to Kier and set up an interview. BuildForce prepped me for the interview which helped, as this was all new to me. In terms of what helped most during your transition was allowing myself the time to ensure I got out of my resettlement what I wanted to achieve.
My role as Health & Safety Advisor is to manage health and safety on a large construction site. This involved a lot of contractor engagement and providing support and advice where needed. I review Risk Assessments and Method Statements (RAMS) for work to be conducted on site, inspect work areas, carry out advice and guidance visits on work areas and conduct site safety inspections. Issue Tool Box Talks and carry out accident investigation. Also there to answer questions that people and managers approach me with, finally I attend my fair share of meetings such as director meetings and pre-work meetings.
I brought with me groundworks and construction knowledge, from my time in the Royal Engineers, leadership skills, communication and IT skills, people management and problem solving.
Advice I would give to someone who is leaving the Armed Forces and seeking a new career in construction is there are a variety of roles in construction which I did not know existed, so be open minded and versatile about where you want to get to. There are many similarities to the military when working in construction and they are very open to recruiting from the military because they know you arrive with a lot to offer.
Three words I would you use to describe a career in the construction industry – rewarding, challenging and fun. And to describe a Veteran, I would say versatile, motivated and pro-active.”