New year, new career: How to change careers in 2026
Posted on: 8 January, 2026
By Linda Serck
January is traditionally a busy month for major career decisions. The break over Christmas offers space to reassess ambitions, while the start of the year inspires a renewed focus on long-term goals.
At the same time, many employers begin January with fresh budgets and approval to recruit, releasing roles that were on hold at the end of the previous year. For individuals, end-of-year bonuses are typically paid by December or early January, removing a financial reason to delay a move.
Together, these factors make the start of the year a natural point for built environment professionals to climb the career ladder. Gaining new qualifications is one of the most effective ways to ensure your skillset is in shipshape for a successful ascent.
Five ways to boost your built environment career in 2026
Careers in the built environment continue to be in demand, including technical specialists, project managers, surveyors, and sustainability experts.
But what is also in demand is up-to-date professional abilities. As the sector responds to climate commitments, housing pressures, safety overhauls and digital transformation, it is vital to have your finger on the pulse when it comes to skills that built environment employers value the most.
We’ve outlined five ways to enhance your built environment career prospects below:
1. Tailor your learning towards market demand
For built environment jobs, the strongest opportunities sit at the cross-section of skills shortages and policy priorities.
National skills forecasts such as those by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) continue to highlight acute shortages in core roles such as building surveying and quantity surveying, building control and construction management.
At the same time, the Higher Education Statistics Agency’s 2025 Graduate Outcomes survey shows that ‘architecture, building and planning’ is the joint second-highest sector for graduate employment.
Add sustainability to the mix, and the picture sharpens further. PwC’s Green Jobs Barometer reports a 42% rise in green jobs since 2023, with more than 270,000 green roles advertised in 2024 alone.
Thus, for a career progression or pivot in the built environment, become that professional who can combine technical competence with environmental awareness and regulatory understanding.
At the University of the Built Environment, sustainability is handily embedded across all our programmes. This means that, whether you specialise in surveying, construction management, planning or real estate, environmental responsibility becomes part of your professional toolkit rather than an optional extra.
- Job profile: Building surveyor
- Job profile: Quantity surveyor
- Job profile: Building control surveyor
- Job profile: Construction manager
2. Strengthen your net-zero know-how
According to the UK Government, the built environment is responsible for around 25% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, which is why decarbonising buildings is high on the political agenda. Retrofit, energy assessments, passive design, and low-carbon systems now play a role in almost every construction or property project.
In terms of job roles, net zero is changing project management, procurement, cost planning, asset management, building services engineering, facilities management, and many more.
- Job profile: Construction project manager
- Job profile: Sustainability consultant
- Job profile: Environmental scientist
Whether you’re on an architectural technologist on a design team, a civil engineer as part of a construction project, or planning assets as a facility manager, understanding net zero fundamentals will pay dividends.
What you can do:
- Take a Professional Training course in Controlling Energy and Carbon Emissions in Buildings (six hours) to grasp how energy use and carbon differ and how to reduce both on projects.
- Look at Reaching Net Zero through Passive Building Design and Reducing Energy Use through Active Building Design – both are bitesize six-hour options that fit around work.
- For professionals looking to build advanced expertise in sustainability, enquire with us about a postgraduate degree in MSc Renewable Energy and AI or MSc Innovation in Sustainable Built Environments.
3. Become fluent in digital tools and data
Digital delivery for built environment projects is now a baseline requirement. The UK government mandated the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) Level 2 on all centrally-procured public sector construction projects. This naturally led to a surge in its usage across the entire industry.
Professionals who can connect data to decision-making are always in demand. Becoming skilled in BIM, as well as cloud-based workflows, digital twins and data-led asset management, is a key pathway to a career boost.
Short modules and Professional Training courses can introduce the digital foundations you need to know.
If you’re aiming higher – perhaps a leadership role – degrees like BSc (Hons) Construction Management or MSc Construction Management build technical and strategic expertise.
The University of the Built Environment’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) offers a way to strengthen strategic, commercial and management skills alongside work.
4. Upskill your building safety competence
After the Grenfell tragedy, the Building Safety Act 2022 enforced higher accountability and stronger competence expectations around building design and construction. This means professionals must be able to interpret regulation and embed compliance in project decisions.
A short course such as Fire Safety Design Fundamentals (4 hours) offers an essential introduction.
5. Turning knowledge into practice
Employers are always looking for how learning is being applied in the workplace and what outcomes it has improved.
In the built environment, this might mean reducing embodied carbon on a live project, improving compliance processes, streamlining digital workflows, or strengthening safety governance.
A simple but powerful habit is to keep an ‘impact record’ (also called an ‘accomplishment log’ or ‘brag doc’). After completing a course or module, note what changed as a result: a process improved, a risk reduced, and/or a more informed recommendation made. This visual record of progress boosts motivation, helps with performance reviews, and serves as tangible proof of your career growth potential.
At the University of the Built Environment, learning is designed to be applied to real-world practice as a matter of course. Whether through Professional Training, degree programmes or apprenticeships, our courses help professionals to actively shape safer, more sustainable, and better-performing built environments.
Enquire about built environment courses
The University of the Built Environment’s flexible online learning model, from bitesize Professional Training courses to degrees and apprenticeships, gives you choices that work around your 2026 career goals and your schedule.
The key is to pick a pathway that matches your circumstances:
- Professional Training short courses if you are looking for a swift upskill alongside work, particularly in areas such as energy, carbon and building performance.
- Undergraduate or postgraduate study if you are seeking deeper specialist knowledge, a career pivot, or progression into leadership and decision-making roles.
- Apprenticeships if you want to earn while you learn, developing competence within a live employer setting.
Whether through a short course or a full qualification, targeted learning remains one of the most effective ways to strengthen your career. And you’ll also be helping the built environment sector meet some of its most challenging demands. Good luck!
Explore all our courses at the University of the Built Environment and start your climb up the career ladder today.
