Construction Technician

Canadian Armed Forces; Gagetown; On-site; CAD 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

The Construction Technician role in the Canadian Armed Forces involves providing essential engineering support for military operations. The responsibilities include the construction and maintenance of structures, both at home and abroad, contributing to operational success in varied environments. Ideal candidates should possess at least a Grade 10 education and are prepared for on-the-job training and deployment.

Qualifications

• No previous work experience or career-related skills are required.
• Completion of the provincial requirements for Grade 10 or Secondary 4 in Quebec.

Responsibilities

• Construct, repair and maintain buildings for personnel and equipment.
• Produce related structural designs and specifications.
• Construct field defences and erect prefabricated structures.

Education

Grade 10 or Secondary 4 in Quebec

Job description

Non-Commissioned Member | Full Time, Part Time

As a member of the military, Construction Technicians provide structural engineering support to operational units at home and abroad.

As a member of the military, Construction Technicians provide structural engineering support to operational units at home and abroad.

The Construction Technician job is one of seven Construction Engineering positions that provide all construction, civil, electrical and mechanical engineering services to Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) operations. The primary responsibilities of the Construction Technician are to:

• Construct, repair and maintain buildings for the protection of personnel and equipment
• Produce related structural designs and specifications
• Produce related structural drawings
• Construct field defences
• Erect prefabricated structures

Work environment

Construction Technicians often work with the challenges that come with varying environments. They maintain their skills while employed at home units or on humanitarian and United Nations operational assignments.

If you chose a career in theRegular Force, upon completion of all required training, you will be assigned to your first base. While there is some flexibility with regards to postings (relocations), accommodations can’t always be made, and therefore, you can likely expect to move at some point in your career. However, if you decide to join the Primary Reserve Force, you will do so through a specific Reserve unit. Outside of training, your chosen Reserve unit will be your workplace on a part time basis, and you will not be obligated to relocate to a different base. As part of the Primary Reserve Force, you typically work one night per week and some weekends as a minimum with possibilities of full-time employment.

SERGEANT SHAWN EDDISON: I’m Sergeant Shawn Eddison from Corner Brook, Newfoundland – a Construction Technician currently posted to Canadian Forces Base Kingston.

Construction Technicians work with all units of the Canadian Armed Forces –the Army, Air Force, Navy, Joint and Special Operations– building and maintaining barracks, hangars, storage facilities, offices, and temporary shelters.They are part of the highly skilled and versatile Construction Engineering division,working alongside Drafting and Survey Techs, Electrical Generating Systems Techs, Electrical Distribution Techs, Plumbing and Heating Techs, Mechanical and Refrigeration Techs as well as Water, Fuels and Environment Techs to support Canadian Armed Forces operations here at home and overseas.

SERGEANT SHAWN EDDISON: You can’t be a Construction Technician without actually dabbling into the other worlds in this construction engineering trade. We often rely on other members of other trades to help us as they rely on us to help them. It’s a great opportunity to get some cross training. We’re one big happy family.

Here in Canada, Construction Techs are involved in drafting the plans, as well as building and maintaining all the permanent physical structures on base. From starting off a new building from scratch, to putting up the roof, to finishing off the interior – block work, tile work, drafting, framing, drywall, painting – Construction Techs do it all.

On deployment, troops are often going into areas where the infrastructure isn’t up to Canadian standards, or possibly isn’t there at all.

SERGEANT SHAWN EDDISON: As a Construction Technician, you’re very often called upon to be the first people into a situation, and very often to be the last person out. Prior to a camp set-up or prior to an established site, it’s our job to actually build the camp up, to give a more comfortable living environment and provide the necessary infrastructure for people to work out of – not just the front-line people like the infantry or the artillery, but also everyone that’s behind the scenes, like the administration side of it with our clerks, officers, medics, any of those trades. We assist those to actually build up the infrastructure, so that they can work and they can do their job.

SERGEANT SHAWN EDDISON: I’ve deployed twice as a Construction Tech – once on Op Reassurance in Latvia, and another on Op Impact in Kuwait. Both experiences were amazing experiences. Just for the fact that you get to work with so many different personalities, not only around Canada, but also from around the world, with the other countries that are deployed on these operations with us.

On completing their military and preliminary occupation training, Construction Technicians are assigned to a Real Property Operations unit or a Construction Engineering Flight for two years of on-the-job experience and training. They’ll work under the supervision of senior technicians on tasks that get progressively more complex as time goes by.

SERGEANT SHAWN EDDISON: During your first posting, you can probably be expected to follow the journeyman and really gain as much experience as possible. And you really need to be a sponge for those first couple of years. Because, like anything, you will be taught and shown one way how to do things, but there’s tricks of the trade that other, more experienced personnel can give you to kind of assist you in the years following your initial training.

At the end of this 2-year apprenticeship, Construction Techs head back to Gagetown to complete their journeyman training. When that’s done, they return to their unit as a fully qualified technician, able to work without supervision and ready to be deployed.

SERGEANT SHAWN EDDISON: In Kuwait, we built a hockey rink to play ball hockey. We made it possible so that all nations of the battle group could have a place to play ball hockey while deployed, get some good inter-country rivalry going, I guess, in the form of hockey, right? Nothing more Canadian than that – building a ball hockey rink in another country to try to get every other country together on the same page.

Related Civilian Occupations

• Roofer
• Mason

No previous work experience or career related skills are required. CAF recruiters can help you decide if your personal interests and attributes match the criteria for this occupation.

The minimum required education to apply for this occupation is the completion of the provincial requirements for Grade 10 or Secondary 4 in Quebec, including Grade 10 applied math or 416 / CST 4 in Quebec.