Formwork Carpenter CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for a formwork carpenter with about eleven years on commercial concrete: foundations and walls, then high-rise deck and column work, now a chargehand on a multi-storey car park. The person and the companies are invented. Keep the shape and put your own systems, pour sizes and tolerances in it.

Formwork gangs are hired by the formwork foreman, the frame contractor's site manager or a labour agency. They usually skim your CV standing up, and they are checking four things.

• Systems and scale. Pad foundations and ground beams are a different job from a 6-day floor cycle on a tower. Say which world you come from and which systems you have set.
• Whether the concrete came out right. Tolerance held, no blowouts, pours passing the pre-pour inspection. That is your quality record and almost nobody writes it down.
• Drawings. Can you set out from a structural set on your own, or do you need to be shown every line? Say "sets out from structural and formwork drawings" if it is true.
• Safety and the paperwork that goes with it. CSCS card, slinger/signaller, temporary works awareness, working at height. On a large main contractor's job these are gate items, not extras.

“The word I look for is "blowout". If a guy tells me he ran four years of wall pours with no blowouts, he understands pour rate, tie spacing and bracing, and he checked his work. Anyone can write "experienced in formwork". Tell me the system, the height, the tolerance and how many cubes went in behind it.”

Three or four lines at the top. Years, type of concrete work, systems by name, one hard number, then your cards. If you are new or coming from another country, use a career objective instead and put your systems and your tickets in it.

A job description says what the role does. Your CV should say what you did and how it turned out. Same duties, rewritten.

Split the list so a site manager can find what they need. Systems first, then hand skills, then setting out and tools.

Formwork systems and structures:

• Peri (Trio, Maximo, Skydeck), Doka (Framax, Dokaflex), RMD Kwikform and other proprietary systems
• Gang forms, flying table forms, self-climbing core forms
• Column forms: steel, circular cardboard formers, adjustable
• Falsework, back-propping, drophead systems, adjustable steel props
• Traditional timber formwork, stop ends, box-outs, upstands, stair formwork
• Slipform and jump form support work

Craft skills:

• Structural and formwork drawing reading, in metric
• Setting out with total station, laser level, optical level, plumb bob and string line
• Concrete pressure and pour rate awareness (CIRIA guidance and the manufacturer's tables)
• Tie rods, she-bolts, taper ties, walings, soldiers, push-pull props
• Reinforcement placing, tying and cover spacers
• Cast-in items, holding-down bolts and sleeves set to survey lines
• Striking, cleaning, release agent, panel repair and yard stacking
• Slinging, choke and basket hitches, hand and radio signals

Tools and the practical side:

• Circular saw, chop saw, impact driver, cartridge tool, hammer drill and anchors
• MEWPs, scissor lifts, telehandler
• Cold weather protection: frost blankets, heaters, admixture awareness
• Night pours, weekend pours and overtime through a floor cycle
• Lifting and carrying panels and props all day, working at height in a harness
• Basic Polish, Romanian or English, whichever your gang is short of

There is no licence to be a formwork carpenter in the UK. What you can list is your NVQ or apprenticeship, your CSCS card and the safety training a main contractor asks for at induction. Give the issuer and the year.

• CSCS card: Blue Skilled Worker with an NVQ Level 2 in formwork, Gold Advanced Craft with Level 3 or for supervisors. Chargehands are often expected to hold SSSTS as well.
• Temporary works training. Formwork and falsework are temporary works under BS 5975, so a temporary works awareness or supervisor course is worth naming. Say which one.
• Slinger/signaller card (CPCS A40 or the NPORS equivalent). If you sling loads to a crane, this belongs on the page.
• IPAF for scissor and boom MEWPs, plus a telehandler or forklift card if you have one.
• Working at height and confined spaces, where your work needs them.
• Emergency First Aid at Work (1 day) or First Aid at Work (3 days).
• Apprenticeship: list the trade, the level and the year you finished. A completed formwork or carpentry apprenticeship with an NVQ is a strong line.
• CITB short courses and contractor-specific training, such as edge protection or formwork system courses from the supplier, can go in one line.

If you trained outside the UK, list what you hold and say plainly where it is from. An Irish Safe Pass, an Australian White Card or a US OSHA card is not valid on a UK site, but it does show a training history. Do not translate a foreign qualification into a UK one that does not exist. If you are unsure which CSCS card you can get, check with CSCS before you apply.

In the UK, formwork carpenter, shuttering carpenter and formworker are all used, often for the same job. Use the advert's title as your headline and put the other word in brackets once so a keyword search still finds you: "Formwork Carpenter (shuttering carpenter)".

• One page. Two only if you have 15 years and a foreman history worth listing.
• No photo, no date of birth, no marital status. That is standard on a UK CV, even though many overseas CV templates include them.
• Put a Systems line right under your personal statement listing the formwork systems you have set. It is the fastest way to be sorted into the right pile.
• Keep dates in month and year form so a site manager can see whether you worked through the winters.
• Mirror the advert: formwork, shuttering, wall forms, gang forms, table forms, falsework, back-propping, striking, setting out, tie spacing, tolerance, blowout, pour, m³, post-tensioned, permit to strike.
• Save as PDF unless the advert says otherwise, and name the file firstname-lastname-formwork-carpenter.pdf.