SEASON 1 EPISODE 6

How to build a career in Australia’s construction industry

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What qualifications or training are needed to enter construction in Australia?

Work in Progress | Australia Explained

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Discover how migrants can start and grow a career in Australia’s construction sector. Learn about job demand, essential training, safety requirements, and the opportunities available across Australia.

Why does Australia’s construction industry need more workers?
How one migrant built a career in construction?
What qualifications or training are needed to enter construction in Australia?
How have migrants shaped Australia’s construction industry?
Where are the best opportunities for construction jobs in Australia?
What safety, language, and legal expectations should you know?
Which trades are most in demand in construction?
How can you find the right career path in the industry?
Resources and practical tips for migrants in construction

This article shares practical tips from Work in Progress, an Australia Explained series exploring the journeys of skilled migrants building meaningful careers in Australia. Listen to all the episodes for more inspiring stories and expert advice.

In this episode, French-born Jean Moreau shares his journey from entry-level labourer to construction business owner. Joined by industry experts, he offers insights and practical tips for building a successful career in the sector.

Australia’s construction sector needs approximately half a million new workers by 2029. Migrant workers make up a vital 20 per cent of Australia’s construction workforce, but their numbers are declining amid a severe labour shortage.

Jean Moreau working on a site.

Why does Australia’s construction industry need more workers?

The industry needs approximately 500,000 new workers by 2029, Denita Wawn, CEO of Master Builders Australia, says the country needs an additional 350,000 to 400,000 workers by 2029 to meet the forecasted demand.

“The labour shortage for the building and construction industry is quite severe, particularly in relation to trades—40 odd trades that you need to build our buildings and our homes around the country,” she says.

How one migrant built a career in construction?

Jean Moreau arrived from France in 2011 to learn English, never expecting to stay long or work in construction. After fruit-picking in Queensland and odd jobs in Sydney, he was encouraged to call a construction company—and that call changed everything.

Starting as a labourer with no qualifications and limited English, Jean spent years sweeping floors, jackhammering, and working long hours.

“I was sweeping the floor for five years, doing jackhammering every day. On Sunday, I was working at my boss’s house. I worked seven days a week for maybe the first six months.”

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By gaining experience, completing safety training like the White Card, and later specialising in areas such as formwork, Jean steadily advanced.

Today, he owns a construction company employing 50 people across three states. His story shows how migrants can succeed in the industry through persistence, upskilling, and hard work.

What qualifications or training are needed to enter construction in Australia?

“The strong encouragement to get a step in the door and get labouring work is to ensure that you've got your basic site requirements,” Denita says.

In Australia, everyone on a job site needs a White Card, obtained after a one-day training course on basic safety. Some states and territories also require asbestos and silica awareness training.

There are also short-entry courses specific to roles on or off site.

As people gain experience, many upskill through short courses and specialise in trades such as formwork, scaffolding, or safety screens.

To grow, you need to invest in yourself. Training is essential if you want to run your own company one day.
Jean Moreau

Construction workers working on site.

How have migrants shaped Australia’s construction industry?

Tony Bishop, National General Manager at Brick & Block Careers, says that the Australian construction industry has always been immigrant-driven.

In Australia the construction industry has been built on immigration. The amount of Italians and Greek people and from many other countries, all have come here as either skilled or semi-skilled and found their way and worked their way around.
Tony Bishop

Tony notes that while visa type affects employment pathways, most people can find work through:

Labouring jobs
Informal apprenticeships
Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)
Free industry guidance groups and associations like Brick & Block Careers, an organisation offering free guidance on how to engage with the industry and build a career in bricklaying.

Where are the best opportunities for construction jobs in Australia?

Most construction jobs are concentrated in metro areas, with 80 per cent of Australians living within 50 kilometres of the coast. However, regional towns also offer unique opportunities.

In Australia, [a] good tip is if you're not attached to any big city, if you're willing to go in a small town that is getting developed, there's a lot of work out there.
Jean Moreau

This willingness to move has helped many migrants grow their careers faster by going where demand is highest.

Denita is the Chief Executive of Master Builders Australia.

What safety, language, and legal expectations should you know?

Australian construction sites are highly regulated, especially around safety.

Graciete Ferreira, Managing Director of ACT Pacific Formwork and a former migrant herself, notes:

We have very rigorous site safety controls. Migrants must understand they are responsible for their own and others’ safety.
Graciete Ferreira

To work on any construction site, a White Card is mandatory. This nationally recognised accreditation is earned by completing a one-day training course on basic site safety. Depending on the state or territory, workers may also be required to complete additional training, such as asbestos awareness, silica awareness, or specific equipment licences (for example, scaffolding, forklifts, or cranes).

Workers are also protected under Australia’s Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws, which require employers to provide safe workplaces. Employees, in turn, must follow site rules, use protective equipment, and immediately report hazards. Breaches of safety laws can result in fines, dismissal, or in serious cases, criminal charges.

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English skills are also critical—not just for integration, but for survival. Construction sites are fast-paced and can be dangerous if instructions are misunderstood.

Jean Moreau stresses the importance of language skills:

“If someone yells, ‘Watch out!’ and you don’t understand, you can get badly hurt or killed.”

For those still improving their English, many TAFE institutions and community colleges offer workplace English courses designed for migrants in construction and trades. Some employers also support language training to help staff meet communication and safety standards.

Additionally, all workers must hold the right visa with work entitlements. Many trades also require licences issued by state or territory regulators (for example, electrical and plumbing licences). It’s important to check with the relevant authority in your state before starting work.

Graciete Ferreira, the Managing Director of ACT Pacific Formwork Credit: Elesa Kurtz/Canberra Times

Which trades are most in demand in construction?

Denita highlights carpenters, plumbers, electricians, tilers, farm workers, and bricklayers as the most in-demand trades.

Each trade has different physical demands, training needs, and licensing requirements.

For example, formwork involves heavy machinery and requires specialised safety certifications.

Tony advises researching each trade carefully to find one that matches your strengths and long-term goals.

How can you find the right career path in the construction industry?

Jean believes in giving chances to others at his company, just as someone once gave him his first shot.

“I’ve been there. I hire people from everywhere: Australia, the Pacific, Europe, South America. Everyone has a story.”

But he is clear on what it takes to succeed.

“You’ve got to work. People say you make good money here, but... it’s hard work—but it pays off.”

Resources and practical tips for migrants in construction

If you’re considering a career in Australia’s construction industry, here are some key steps and resources to help you get started:

Check your work rights: Confirm your visa details and conditions using Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO).
Get your White Card: Complete the mandatory safety induction via an approved provider. Learn more from Safe Work Australia.
Explore job opportunities: Entry-level roles and information on demand can be found on Jobs Hub – Construction.
Research career pathways: The Construct Your Career guide from Master Builders Australia outlines roles, qualifications, and average wages.
Upskill with training: Search for short courses, apprenticeships, or nationally recognised qualifications through Registered Training Organisations (RTOs).
Check licensing rules: Trades such as plumbing and electrical require licences. Find out more through your state or territory licensing authority.
Improve your English: Access workplace English courses through your local TAFE.
Consider regional work: Regional towns often have high demand and faster career progression opportunities. Explore options on Australian Apprenticeships Pathways.

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Disclaimer: This article presents one example of a migrant’s journey into the construction industry. The information provided is accurate at the time of publishing but may change over time. Individuals interested in working in construction should seek tailored advice from official sources, such as the Australian Government Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, Master Builders Australia, and relevant state or territory training authorities and professional associations.

Transcript

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I was sweeping the floor for 5 years, doing jackhammering every day, 60 hours a week, and on Sunday I was working at my boss' house. I worked 7 days a week for maybe 6 months here, and most of the construction bosses will start from scratch.

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Welcome to Work in Progress, a podcast that follows the stories of adventurous professionals who decided to call Australia home, with helpful tips, advice from experts, and Australian leading organisations on how to build your career here. I'm your host, Francesca Valdinoci, and today we talk about construction. Let's get to work.

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Of the 1.4 million people working in the building and construction industry at the moment, around about 20% of those are migrants.

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This is Denita Wawn, the CEO of Master Builders Australia, the nation's big association for the building and construction industry.

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She says skilled migrants are a vital part of the industry, but their numbers are declining at a time when the sector is facing a workforce shortage.

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The labor shortage for the building and construction industry is quite severe, particularly in relation to trades, 40 odd trades that you need to build our buildings and our homes around the country. We're estimating that we need at least another 150,000 to 200,000 trades,

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qualified people over the next 5 years and all up we need around about another 350 to 400 thousand people over the next 5 years to build what is forecast to be built.

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That means around half a million people must enter the industry by 2029. There's no shortage of opportunities for those willing to work and grow professionally.

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It doesn't matter like where they start, if it's a one day job or a one week job. If they give themselves a good name and a good reputation, they're always going to get busy in Australia.

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This is Jean Moreau. He was born in France and grew up in Normandy, dreaming of becoming a flight attendant so he could travel the world. To make that dream a reality, he needed to learn English. So in 2011, he decided to spend a few months in Sydney.

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During those three months, I met so many people, you know, like in Australia, it's such a multicultural society. I met so many different nationalities, I fall in love with this country.

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At 20, Jean never expected a short stay to turn into a lifetime or to take his career in a completely different direction. Today, at 34, he runs a construction company with around 50 employees and projects across New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, and Queensland.

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I was sweeping the floor for 5 years, doing jackhammering every day, 60 hours a week, and on Sunday I was working at my boss' house. I worked 7 days a week for maybe 6 months. And most of the construction bosses will start from scratch.

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After a 4 month stay in rural Queensland, Jean hit the road with a van and made his way back to Sydney.

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Life in the city was tough at first. Jean had no formal qualifications or prior professional experience. He ended up working in a car wash, earning very little and getting paid per car he washed. But a chance encounter changed everything.

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He met a construction company owner, and 2 weeks later he started working on site.

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I had no idea about construction before. Completely new world for me. First of all, I wasn't speaking English at all, like a few words. They just make me sweep the floor and pick up the rubbish, do the jackhammer. But even if I wasn't speaking English, they were very, very, very friendly with me, always helping me out, trying to understand me, teach me well. It was really welcoming.

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To work on a construction site, you need some specific requirements that vary by state and territory, as Denita explains.

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The strong encouragement to get a step in the door and get labouring work is to ensure that you've got your basic site requirements. In all jurisdictions you need what is known as a white card, which is a safety training. It's a day-long course. In some jurisdictions you'll also need asbestos safety training and also silica training. They are all half day, one day courses that then enables you to be eligible to access labouring work.

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And that is always a good starting point for people to consider employment in the industry.

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Depending on the trade, there are tailored courses designed to help people find work in the industry.

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Many people are attracted to the construction industry because it is a high paying role, and in some circumstances you only need to undertake short courses to get work in the industry. So a really good

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example is traffic control. It's a 1 or 2 course to then enable you to get into a job as opposed to say trades where it takes up to 4 years. There are some really good opportunities for people to look at those short courses to get a foot in the door of the industry, and then work their way up if they wish to do so.

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Jean says you don't necessarily need formal qualification to start working in the sector.

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There's a lot of people who want to get into this industry with no qualification, and it's possible because I've done it, and today I'm hiring maybe 10% of my staff with no qualification, but it doesn't matter as long as you're willing to work. If you're a hard worker, I reckon you can make a difference even if you don't have qualification.

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Besides training, some trades require licenses obtained through relevant local authorities.

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Construct your Career is a free guide featuring profiles of all jobs in the industry, the qualifications required, and average wages. It is available on the Master Builders Australia website. Denita also suggests looking into

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trade specific organisations for additional guidance. Tony Bishop is the national general manager of Brick and Block Careers, an organisation offering free advice on how to engage with the industry and build a career in bricklaying.

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He notes that the type of visa you hold can affect the pathways available, but ultimately it depends on your professional goals.

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There's always going to be more opportunities in the city because 80% of Australians live 50 kilometers of the water, so there isn't that much infrastructure once you start moving inland to regional. However, in saying that, there is a lot of tree change

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people that now are saying we're going to move out there and live for the better lifestyle, you know, cleaner air, not as busy, etc. etc.

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For Jean, moving around Australia to chase work opportunities has helped accelerate careers.

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In Australia, I think a good tip is if you're not attached to any big city, if you're willing to go in a small town or getting developed, there's a lot of work out there.

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For someone who just start fresh, I recommend them to start to work for somebody, and then after when you hear something in the industry where there's maybe a better money somewhere to grab the chance and to go.

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Tony emphasises that there are many pathways possible for a career in construction.

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It's what you want out of it too. Like, you can easily go and work in a gang, learn your trade, or learn some skills and make some good money as what we call a trail hand, which is a non-formal qualification, but you work and you lay bricks and blocks every day and you get paid accordingly. Or you can go down RPL, look at some of the other courses that can be on offer. From time to time there are improver courses which you might be able to jump into and just pick up the skills as you go.

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After one year working with his first employer, Jean began working in formwork, the moulds used to shape concrete into structural elements like beams, columns, slabs, and shells for building.

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It was a massive company from Sydney. They gave me a chance, you know, like to work for them. Normally you need to be qualified to join that type of industry, and I arrived on the Thursday. I didn't even have a tool belt, hammer, or nothing. I don't know. I always want to try to do my best, and I work hard. I work very, very hard here and it always came in my favour.

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Following 5 years with the same employer, Jean's hard work was recognised, and he was encouraged to open his own business.

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The big boss of the company because they call me Frenchy, they told me, Frenchy, why don't you open your own, you know, and I was thinking it's going to be super hard and very, very difficult. In one day I opened my company. I went to see our accountant. I had my workers' compensation, public liability insurance. In one day everything was ready to go.

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Graciete Ferreira is the managing director of ACT Pacific Formwork,

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a family owned business with 27 years of experience and a team of around 100 employees.

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The company mostly employs workers born overseas and sometimes sponsors them too.

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We know that most of these people have made a sacrifice to change countries, so they will be good workers because they will want to make something out of their lives, and we're here to hopefully provide that for them and assist them in in being very successful.

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Graciete began her construction career nearly 40 years ago as a migrant from Portugal.

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It was a real shock being one of the very few women in the industry. Today she encourages migrants to familiarise themselves with the rules and regulations, especially regarding safety.

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Australia is a lot more safety conscious than a lot of other places in the world. We have very rigorous site safety controls and

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we demand that everyone follow our rules when it comes to safety and getting them to understand that they're responsible as well for their safety and other people's safety and that they have to abide by those rules, that they have to wear the appropriate safety equipment.

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English language skills are very important for safety and career growth in construction, says Jean.

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The main thing is to speak English because if you want to keep carrying on in this industry, you need to speak English. If you need to step up one day in this industry, it's a very dangerous industry as well. You work around crane and machinery. If something happens, someone tells you, watch out, be careful, move away. You don't understand English, you're going to hurt yourself very bad or you're going to die.

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Graciete believes anyone who can hold a hammer can find work, but in such a diverse industry, it's important to understand expectations for each role.

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You can just contact different businesses, Google up businesses in construction. Obviously in Australia it's very specific. If you do formwork, you only do formwork.

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We don't do steel fixing. If you're a steel fixing company, you generally just do steel fixing and post-tensioning kind of thing. So, see what part of the industry you want to work in, and then apply for those jobs.

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With many professional profiles available, Denita notes that some trades are in higher demand and might offer better job opportunities.

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At the moment it's in relation to the key trades in terms of carpentry, plumbers, electricians, tiler, farm workers, bricklayers. They're probably our key ones. If you don't have enough people in those trades, then we're having delays in construction, which are increasing costs of construction around the country.

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But how do you find your way?

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Denita says it's about investing time, effort, and money into training and upskilling when necessary.

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The question really is finding which one is suitable and what gap training may be required, and I think that's the most difficult thing for migrants coming to Australia, that it's finding the money and the time to undertake those gap training to ensure that they're meeting Australian standards.

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Tony says specific task required for each trade must be considered before deciding which one to pursue.

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Do your research and make sure that is what you want to do. If working outdoors in the sun and lugging 17 kg or 14 kg blocks around is not for you, then maybe not the bricklaying is your choice. From there, decide what is it you want to do. Are you happy to come over here and just find your way in the industry or looking for a more structured pathway?

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For Tony, migrants today play a similar role in their generation as those who paved the way before them.

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Australia's construction industry has been built on immigration. You know, the amount of Italians and Greek people that have gone on to build half of Australia and from many other countries all have come here as either skilled or semi-skilled and found their way and worked their way around.

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Jean employs workers of diverse backgrounds, including Australians, Pacific Islanders, Europeans, and South Americans.

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I really, really love it because everybody got a background here, got a history.

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Jean believes it all comes down to working hard if you want to make it in the building and construction industry.

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For me, with my job, it's, it's really motivation because I've been there, so I'll give my chance to anyone, but they just need to work, that's all. Here we do 60 hours a week, so it's not for everybody as well, you know, to come to Australia, people, they say, oh, we make so much money here, but we're working a lot, a lot of long hours and we're working hard too.

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But as Jean's journey proves, while you can start without qualification, training is crucial for progressing in the sector.

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I've done a lot of courses, called like tickets in Australia. I'm specialised now in safety screening, so I just do

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a little bit of formwork and I'm more specialised into scaffolding safety screens, so we do a lot of work with cranes, and most of us need to have those qualifications to be able to touch the hook of the crane. If you want to grow into construction, if you want to grow into the industry, if you want to one day work for yourself, 100% you need to invest in yourself.

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This is an SBS Audio podcast. In Work in Progress, we dive into careers across nursing, early childhood education, engineering, ICT, construction, and aged care, unpacking the journeys, challenges and rewards along the way.

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Work in Progress is created and hosted by me, Francesca Valdinoci. Sound design is by Maram Ismail, and the managing editor is Roza Germian.

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For more helpful tips on settling into your new life in Australia, don't forget to visit Australiaexplained. Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more.

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