Joe Buckley

Joe Buckley

Apprentice Quantity Surveyor

Quantity Surveying Apprentice Joe Buckley discusses his passion for his course and why people should consider our University Centre. 

Hi, my name is Joe Buckley and I’m an Apprentice Quantity Surveyor at Alto Construct. When I first left school, I came to Leeds College of Building and studied Construction in the Built Environment. Since then I’ve moved on to the level 4 Quantity Surveying Technician course where I attend college one day a week and work through my apprenticeship the other days. When I’m not working or at college I enjoy going to the gym or playing for Morley Town Football Club.

The Level 3 Construction in the Built Environment course is a great course to start with, especially if you’re interested in the construction industry but not exactly sure which profession you’d like to go into. This course gave me an insight in to all the different roles and responsibilities.

It was an easy decision for me to continue onto my level 4. I had spent the past 2 years succeeding with great results and I knew I would achieve this again as it’s a great environment to study in. The level 4 does become progressively harder as I’m now starting to focus on my chosen role.

My next steps are to continue onto my level 5 & 6 in Quantity Surveying, and with time, hopefully having the responsibility of overlooking the commercial aspect of my own sites.

My favourite thing about Leeds College of Building and one of the main reasons I chose to continue studying here is because of the huge amount of support that I’ve received. Not just with completing assignments and the course itself, but also a huge amount of support in guiding you into the next steps in life, whether this is gaining an apprenticeship like I decided to do or looking into applying for university.

The Partnerships and Skills team were great help during my level 3 course. In this team you have the Careers Advisor, Lisa Pannell and the Employability Officer, Emma Pearson. Lisa helped me with writing my statement to universities in which I received 5 conditional offers within the first two weeks of applying. When I discussed with them the opportunity to move onto an apprenticeship, both Lisa and Emma were sending me job opportunities from companies that were looking to hire apprentices and helped me to apply.