Annual Salary
£24,000 to £40,000
Average UK salary in 2024 was £37,430
(source Office for National Statistics)
Swap to Design & planning or Property management or go back to all job sectors
Swap to Design & planning or Property management or go back to all job sectors
Carpenters make, install and repair wooden items like wall panels, flooring, door and window frames, roof rafters, staircases, cabinets and furniture.
Average UK salary in 2024 was £37,430
(source Office for National Statistics)
You could work: evenings / weekends; occasionally
There will be
1.9% fewer Carpenter jobs in 2029.
As a carpenter, you could:
You may need to wear protective clothing.
You could work in a workshop, on a construction site, at a client's business or at a client's home.
Your working environment may be dusty, at height and you'll travel often.
You can get into this job through:
You could take a college course like:
Courses like these would teach you some of the skills and knowledge you need to find a trainee position with a company.
Entry requirements for these courses vary.
You could apply to do a:
You could also do a Wood Product Manufacturing Operative Level 2 Intermediate Apprenticeship, producing goods used in the furniture making and construction industries.
These apprenticeships can take around 2 years to complete. They combine on-the-job training and time spent with a college or training provider.
To get onto an apprenticeship, you'll find it useful to have:
If you're thinking of changing career to carpentry, look out for short or part-time 'taster' courses at your local college. These are designed to help you find out if carpentry is for you.
You can find out more about becoming a carpenter from Go Construct and House Building Careers.
With experience, you could become a site supervisor or construction project manager.
You could also move into:construction estimating; contracts management; specialist areas like set building for stage and screen, or heritage restoration; facilities maintenance in a large organisation, like a hospital or housing association; training apprentices on site
You may wish to start your own business or teach in a further education college.
You can find out more about becoming a carpenter from Go Construct and House Building Careers.
Carpentry and joinery skills are important to retrofitting domestic and commercial buildings.
Retrofit careers
Retrofitting includes a wide variety of jobs and skills that help to improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings. When a property has been retrofitted it can retain heat for longer. This increases the comfort of a home whilst also lowering energy usage which can result in lowered energy costs and carbon emissions.
There are a wide variety of retrofitting jobs requiring lots of different skills including working in the construction industry.
For example in the West of England area Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) indicate that over 250,000 homes in the West of England require retrofitting. That’s a huge amount of retrofitting work over the next few years to meet the region’s net zero targets.
These pathway maps show how you can become a carpenter or joiner in the West of England and are relevant for most regions within England.
You'll need: