“Chartered status sets you apart from others”

Andrew Collins CMgr FCMI entered the construction industry as an apprentice when he was 16, having left school with very few qualifications. Three years later he was a qualified bricklayer, married with his first child and a mortgage to pay. Now, after 45 years in the business and several award-winning housing projects, he’s an operations manager and Chartered Fellow who’s helping the next generation of apprentices find their way in the industry. 

Andrew found himself in a management role early: he became a site manager on building projects in Swansea after just three years as a bricklayer. And he found it daunting to be supervising people who were middle aged while he was “just a young whipper snapper”. 

He credits his employer at the time for showing faith in his abilities.

“I remember thinking, I wonder if I’ll ever do any large projects that were near a million pounds in value,” he says. “Now a million pounds will hardly get you a kitchen extension on a large project.” 

He’s now at Morganstone, the construction company, where he oversees several projects simultaneously – including having responsibility for multiple teams and managing their individual progress. 

Andrew has worked on everything from housing association builds to large schools, care homes, student high rise accommodation and military and refurbishment projects. He mostly manages new builds these days, but each project he oversees starts “from the minute the bucket goes in the ground to the minute that we cut the ribbon in the end – and all the trials and tribulations in between”. 

And he has always been proud that he didn’t need a university degree to get where he has.

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Cementing his knowledge

At first, when he was younger and working with clients who were university educated, it felt challenging. “They were very respectful of my ambition and my aim to get things right,” he says, adding that he was never made to feel inferior for not having the same level of education as others. “But it was always in the back of my mind that I was sitting among industry peers and a lot of them were more qualified.” 

In 2016, Andrew found himself in changed circumstances and took the opportunity to head down that road himself, pursuing a Level 7 in Strategic Management & Leadership Practice at Cardiff Metropolitan University.