INTERVIEW
INDUSTRY PROFILE:
BUILDING CONTROL SURVEYOR
ANGELIQUE MCCONNELL Angelique McConnell moved to Guernsey 15 years ago, planning to stay for a few months. A decade and a half later, she is a well-respected building control surveyor for the States of Guernsey. She shared with us her career path and her enjoyment of her current role.
A
ngelique McConnell knew that she wanted to work in the construction industry while she was still at school. At that time, she thought she was interested in a career in building design. But a university degree course later, with an important placement year under her belt, and she was clearer as to exactly what she wanted to do. “I completed a two year HND BTEC in construction which covered everything from construction management to health and safety and building control. It was a good overview of surveying and
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Guernsey Property and Construction
the industry in general. That HND led me into doing a degree in Environment and Development, which included a year out in a placement with Derbyshire County Council as a building surveyor. “This was in 2000 when the government had a real focus on making sure that public buildings were accessible to everyone. My role therefore included a lot of access auditing, including putting costings together, getting contractors on site and ensuring that the construction works still allowed the buildings to function for the public.”
That placement not only gave Angelique the inspiration for the direction she’d like to take with her career, but a good grounding in the attributes needed for her current job. Once she’d finished university she was given a place on Dew Construction’s graduate training scheme, rotating through departments and involving such diverse projects as motorways, industrial units and the refurbishment of multi-storey council flats. It was that job with Dew Construction which led to her move in Guernsey. At the time, the firm