• Office
  • Engineering-Technical
  • Secondary qualifications
  • Excellent communicator

What does a plant support services co-ordinator do?

As a plant support services coordinator, you’ll be responsible for managing a team of engineers to ensure their movement to the required sites to undertake service work. Duties can include visiting sites, which may be offshore or overseas.

The job role of a plant support services coordinator involves the following duties: 

  • Coordinating the movements of a team of engineers throughout the UK or overseas
  • Liaising with clients to arrange site visits
  • Organising travel and accommodation
  • Updating reports
  • Overseeing invoicing
  • Liaising with agents abroad
  • Developing the efficiency of the existing plant through continuous improvement techniques
  • Ensuring projects are delivered on time and within budget
  • Completing verbal and written shift handovers 
  • Ensuring maintenance logs are fully completed.

How to become a plant support services co-ordinator

There are several routes to becoming a plant support services coordinator. Whilst there are no formal qualifications required, you could complete a college course, an apprenticeship, on-the-job training or apply to an employer directly.  

You should explore these routes to find out which is the right one for you. Although some of these options have certain qualification requirements, many employers are more interested in people who are enthusiastic, willing to learn and can follow instructions.

You may need a Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) card to work on a construction site.

College/training provider

You could complete a course in business administration or IT with a college or local training provider to give you a good start in applying for a job as a plant support services coordinator.  You could do a Level 2 or 3 Diploma in Business and Administration.

You’ll need: 

Apprenticeship

An apprenticeship is a good way into the construction industry. 

An intermediate business administration apprenticeship takes around two years to complete and will help provide you with the skills needed to become a plant support services coordinator.  If your employer can provide you with the right experiences, you can progress onto a Level 3 (advanced) qualification.

You’ll need:

  • Up to 5 GCSEs (or equivalent), usually including English and maths (intermediate apprenticeship)
  • 5 GCSEs (or equivalent) at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), including English and maths (advanced apprenticeship).

Apprenticeships are open to anyone over the age of 16. As an apprentice, you’ll be fully employed by your company and expected to work a minimum of 30 hours a week. Your time will be split between on-the-job experience and a college or training provider.

Work

If you have some basic experience, you could apply directly to a construction company to gain on-site experience as a plant support services coordinator. You might start out as an assistant to a more experienced plant support services coordinator and progress as your abilities improve.

Work experience

Work experience is essential to gaining employment within the construction industry. You could gain this at school, or by working weekends and holidays with a company or relative who works as a plant support services coordinator. Potential employers will always be pleased to see work experience listed on your CV.

Skills 

Additional skills which may benefit anyone considering a job as a plant support services coordinator include: 

  • Administration skills
  • Good attention to detail
  • Ability to work well with others
  • Ability to organise a team
  • Flexible and open to change
  • Customer service skills
  • Time management skills.

Qualifications

How much could you earn as a plant support services co-ordinator?

The expected salary for a plant support services coordinator varies as you become more experienced.

  • Newly trained plant support services coordinators can start at £20000
  • Trained with experience plant support services coordinators can earn up to £40000*

Salaries depend on location, employer, level of responsibility, any overtime you may do, and whether you have completed an industry recognised training route. 

* Salaries have been collected from multiple industry sources 

Career path and progression

As a plant support services coordinator, you could progress within the role to become a plant controller, and eventually a plant manager once your skills and experience improve.