HIRING UK Post a job

Advice  ›  CV writing

Construction CV: cards, tickets and trades on one clear document

7 minute read · Updated 2026-08-23

A construction CV is a gate pass as much as a career summary. Before anyone assesses your workmanship, a site manager or agency resourcer checks that your cards are valid, that your safety training matches the level of the role, and that you have worked on the kind of project they are staffing. Get those onto page one in a form that can be read in fifteen seconds and the rest of the CV gets read at all.

Lead your construction CV with cards and tickets

Put a block of qualifications directly beneath your personal statement. Include the card type, the expiry and the certificate or registration number where you have it.

  • CSCS card and colour. Green covers labourers, blue is for skilled workers with an NVQ Level 2, gold covers supervisors and advanced craft, black is for managers, and white cards cover professionally qualified people. Include the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test date.
  • Safety training: SSSTS for supervisors, SMSTS for site managers, IOSH or NEBOSH if you hold them.
  • Working at height and access: IPAF categories such as 3a and 3b, PASMA, harness and rescue training.
  • Plant tickets: CPCS or NPORS categories, telehandler, forward tipping dumper, 360 excavator, MEWP.
  • Trade specific registration: ECS card and JIB grade for electricians, Gas Safe registration for gas work, NVQ Level 2 or 3 in your trade, City and Guilds certificates.
  • Short but essential courses: abrasive wheels, asbestos awareness, confined spaces, first aid at work, fire marshal, manual handling.

Add your own PPE, your transport, and how far you are willing to travel. Site work is decided on logistics as often as skill.

Name the projects and the contractors

The most useful thing on a construction CV is a project list, because it tells the reader instantly whether you have worked at their scale and under their standards. For each recent role give the main contractor or client, the type of project, its rough size and your part in it.

  • New build housing, 140 plot site. First and second fix carpentry, setting out from drawings, working to programme with a two week look ahead.
  • Student accommodation, eight storeys. Groundworks, drainage runs and kerbing, working to RAMS and a permit system.
  • Commercial fit out, occupied office. Out of hours partition and ceiling work, coordinating with the client's facilities team.
  • Highways scheme. Traffic management under sector schemes, night works, and daily briefings.

Mention the paperwork, because it separates a tradesperson who can be left alone from one who cannot: reading and signing RAMS, toolbox talks, permits to work, snagging lists, quality sign offs and inductions.

Supervisors, managers and the step up

If you are moving from the tools into supervision, the CV needs different evidence: the size of the gang you ran, the trades you coordinated, whether you handled inductions and toolbox talks, how you managed materials and waste, and whether you have taken responsibility for programme or quality. Name any experience with subcontractor management, plant hire, or reporting to a contracts manager. An SSSTS with real gang leadership behind it is far more convincing than an SMSTS with none.

CIS, umbrella and how you want to be paid

Construction has more payment arrangements than any other UK sector, and stating yours saves time. Say whether you are looking for PAYE employment, self employed work under the Construction Industry Scheme, or an assignment through an agency.

If you work under CIS, list your Unique Taxpayer Reference status and that you are registered, since unregistered subcontractors have a higher rate deducted at source. Those deductions are payments on account towards your tax and National Insurance, and you settle up through your Self Assessment return with HMRC, so keep every statement.

If an agency offers to pay you through an umbrella company, look closely at the assignment rate. The umbrella employs you, and its margin, employer National Insurance and the apprenticeship levy usually come out of that rate before your gross pay is calculated. You are still entitled to a payslip, holiday pay and at least the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage. Be careful with any scheme that promises unusually high take home pay, because arrangements of that kind have left workers with large tax bills. Check the paperwork before you sign, and take advice from ACAS or HMRC if anything is unclear.

Keep it two pages and keep it current

Trades CVs bloat quickly because every contract gets its own block. Group short contracts under the agency or under a heading such as Contract work 2022 to 2025, with the main sites listed underneath. Give full detail for your last two or three roles only.

Finally, diary your card expiry dates. A CV that lists an expired CSCS card or an out of date IPAF ticket goes to the bottom of the pile, and renewing takes days rather than minutes when a start date is waiting. If you are moving into construction from another sector, our career change CV guide covers how to present transferable experience, and the CV mistakes list is worth checking before you send.

Next step: build a card and ticket block at the top of page one with every expiry date, then search live site vacancies in our job listings.