A Day in the Life of a Technical Training Director for Building & Real Estate

Zoe Cox is the Technical Training Director for the Building and Real Estate Division of Socotec UK and Ireland. The role involves the development and implementation of technical training programmes throughout key areas within the business, alongside the provision of CPD to support the upskilling of staff.

But that’s only one of Zoe’s key roles, she is also the President of the Chartered Association of Building Engineers, otherwise known as CABE. Since her inauguration earlier this year, Zoe has undertaken a wide array of Presidential duties, a continuation of the work that she started with CABE over 17 years ago.

To understand how Zoe went from a Criminology and Social Policy student to President of CABE, we had to sit down and discuss her career with her…

What is your educational background ?

I finished my A-Levels and wanted to go to university, but I didn't quite know what I wanted to do, so in the end did Criminology and Social policy as it sounded to be rather interesting.  Whilst studying for the final year of that degree, I discovered an interest in health and safety.

I then completed my NEBOSH diploma in Occupational Safety and Health while I was doing my final years of my degree.

Can you walk us through your early days of your career ?

Upon leaving University, I saw a job advert for a Trainee Building Inspector, which was primarily health and safety in and around buildings, I didn't really know what it consisted of, I just saw health and safety and was instantly interested - so I applied for it and got it.

then I realised the job was not only health and safety, it also incorporated building and construction, another area that I found really interesting.

The training for this role involved shadowing site inspectors when looking at building work, checking plans for compliance and learning all about the Regulatory side of building.

I achieved an Ordinary National Certificate (ONC) and Higher National Certificate (HNC) in construction, then I moved on to undertake and complete my BSc (Hons) in Building Engineering

By this point I had gained enough experience and knowledge, enabling me to undertake my professional interview, which gave me the status of Chartered Building Engineer.

How was your transition from Building Engineer to Teaching ?

As the recession hit in 2009, I was approached by Sheffield Hallam University and offered a role as a Senior Lecturer, teaching construction, building control and health and safety.

This provided me with a great opportunity to put my stamp on the academic and teaching side of the industry.  I soon took on the role of Course Leader, leading on various degree courses for example BSc Building Engineering and BSc Construction project management.

I also wrote and developed a degree apprenticeship in Construction Site Management, and whilst at Hallam I completed my postgraduate certificate in Education and also my Masters degree in Health and Safety Environment.

When did you join SOCOTEC ?

I was approached by Quadrant, who had seen my rather unusual skill set on LinkedIn.  The fact that I had building control, health and safety and academic teaching experience was quite a rare find.

I joined Quadrant as Head of Training and Development, which just focused on the technical training side, and I created a training programme for the Building Control team.

And then, from January 2025 when Quadrant converged with SOCOTEC, I took over the Technical Training Director role, which covers all of the Building and Real Estate division.

What is your experience in your current role ?

Rather than just looking now at Building Control, I look at CDM, Building Pathology, Fire Safety and Fire Engineering, so basically all the other areas within the division, I apply the same thing to.

So now we are looking at full training programmes, we've got apprentices coming through who I provide additional training to within the workplace. We also have graduates who are on the learning journey, and we have full support in place to help them become Registered Building Inspectors (RBIs).

It's given me a much wider remit of the overall picture, and I've got a better overview now of the areas within the division, it helps us to identify how we can bring in more collaborative working between the specialisms.

What are the challenges facing Building Regulations Industry ?

As of last year, the Building Safety Regulator introduced legislation which meant that all building control professionals must be regulated. They now have to go through a competency assessment in order to demonstrate their competency to work as a Registered Building Inspector.

We've lost a lot of experience at the top end of the industry. So basically, the people who were a year or two from retirement looked at the process and instead opted for early retirement.

Recruitment is very difficult. We've now lost a lot of experienced people from the industry, who were the individuals that helped to train and bring others on.

There is now a severe shortfall of Registered Building Inspectors who are performing the regulatory function. I think we as an industry have to get to grips with the reality of the new normal. Since the terrible tragedy at Grenfell, it is so important that as an industry we developed a focus on building and life safety.

What are you aspirations for the future ?

I want to focus on the Building Real Estate division, and really making sure that they have got really good training programmes in place throughout the division. My focus is on building this training provision up as much as possible, and work on the collaboration work and quality of training, enhancing it as much as we can.