Stonemason

Construction and Trades Career Profiles from The CV Writer - Creating Brand YOU - #creatingbrandYOU

Stonemasons carve blocks of stone, and lay and fit stonework into place on construction projects.

Salary Range: £15,000 to £35,000

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How to become a stonemason

You can get into this job through:

  • a college course
  • an apprenticeship
  • working towards this role
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College

You could take a college course, which would teach you some of the skills needed to get a trainee job with a building company. Courses include:

  • Level 1 Certificate in Construction Skills
  • Level 2 Diploma in Stonemasonry

Entry requirements

You may need:

  • 2 or fewer GCSEs at grades 3 to 1 (D to G), or equivalent, for a level 1 course
  • 2 or more GCSEs at grades 9 to 3 (A* to D), or equivalent, for a level 2 course

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Apprenticeship

You could do an advanced apprenticeship in stonemasonry heritage skills.

This will usually take 30 months to complete. You’ll do on-the-job training and spend time with a college or training provider.

Entry requirements

You’ll usually need:

  • 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths, for an advanced apprenticeship

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Work

You could start as a construction labourer and take further training with your employer to get a qualification in stonemasonry.

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Registration

Career tips

You can do specialist training courses if you’re interested in heritage and conservation skills in stonemasonry.

Further information

You’ll find more on careers in stonemasonry from Go Construct and the Stone Federation.

You can also get more details about stonemasonary craft skills from the Crafts Council.

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What it takes

Skills and knowledge

You’ll need:

  • knowledge of maths
  • knowledge of building and construction
  • ambition and a desire to succeed
  • the ability to use your initiative
  • persistence and determination
  • leadership skills
  • to be thorough and pay attention to detail
  • the ability to work well with others
  • to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device
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What you’ll do

Day-to-day tasks

You’ll be working with materials like sandstone, limestone, slate, marble and granite. Your day-to-day duties may include:

  • building stone walls or fitting cladding using mortar and specialist fixings
  • repairing damaged stonework on old buildings and monuments
  • carving or repairing statues or memorial headstones
  • making and fitting stonework like window frames, archways and ornamental garden pieces

Working environment

You could work on a construction site or in a workshop.

Your working environment may be at height, outdoors some of the time, dusty, noisy and physically demanding.

You may need to wear safety clothing and use safety equipment.

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Career path and progression

With experience, you could progress to supervisory jobs like site supervisor or clerk of works.

You could also move into a related area, like estimating and construction management.

With further training, you could work as a stonemason or bricklaying instructor at a college or training centre. You could also set up your own stonemasonry business.

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