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Career · Building and installation

Bricklayer

Lays walls, partitions and stoves from bricks and blocks and makes sure the masonry is straight and strong.

Career overview

What a day looks like

The bricklayer works on a building site: prepares the mortar, takes a brick or a block and lays it row after row by a string line and a level. You have to make sure the wall comes out straight and vertical. The work is physical, outdoors and often at height, on scaffolding, so a helmet, gloves and a safety harness are important. It is hot in summer and cold in winter. But the wall you laid stands for a long time, and the result of the work is visible at once.

Try it yourself this week

  • 30 minutes

    Measure your room and draw a plan with the furniture

    1. Take a tape measure and measure the walls of the room and the width of the window and door.
    2. Draw a plan to scale on squared paper: one square equals a length you choose in advance.
    3. Measure the furniture and add it to the plan at the same scale.
    4. Try moving the furniture around on paper and find the most comfortable layout.

    What you'll learn about yourself: Whether you like working with exact measurements and picturing in your head how everything will fit.

  • 40 minutes

    Work out the cost of redoing your room, on paper

    1. Use a tape measure to measure the length and width of the walls and write the sizes in a notebook.
    2. Think about what you'd change: paint the walls, replace the floor, add shelves.
    3. Make a table: what you need, how much, and roughly what price range you'd look for in a shop or online. Don't buy anything.
    4. Check you haven't forgotten anything: tools, preparing the walls, cleaning up after the work.

    What you'll learn about yourself: Whether you like planning and calculating in advance, or would rather get straight to work.

What you can do next

  1. Next 3 months

    • Understand the bonding pattern

      Find a diagram that explains how rows of bricks are bonded to each other and redraw it on paper.

  2. In six months

    • Check straightness

      Use a level to check whether a shelf or a table at home stands straight. Write down the result.

  3. In a year

    • Talk to a bricklayer

      Through people you know and together with your parents, find out what a bricklayer's working day is like and what is hardest in it.

What it pays

No verified information is available in this section yet.

Where to study

No verified information is available in this section yet.

How to get into college

College gets you a profession faster than university. You can apply after grade 9 or after grade 11.

  • Colleges accept students both after grade 9 and after grade 11. After grade 9 you study longer — about 3 years 10 months; after grade 11, about 2 years 10 months. The exact length depends on the college and the specialty.
    Source: kchk.edu.kz (opens in a new tab)
  • About 80% of students admitted to colleges in the 2024/25 school year study on a state order, which means in state-funded places (in 2023/24 it was about 70%). But each college and each specialty has its own number of state-funded places.
    Source: inbusiness.kz (opens in a new tab)
  • There are also paid colleges. For example, training as a nurse at ADILMED costs 450,000 ₸ per year. Check the price and conditions on the college's website.
    Source: adilmed.kz (opens in a new tab)
UNT: which subjects to take for university

The UNT (Unified National Testing) is Kazakhstan's national university entrance test. You need it to get into university after grade 11.

  • The UNT 2026 has three compulsory subjects: History of Kazakhstan, Reading Literacy and Mathematical Literacy. On top of these, you take two profile subjects, chosen to match your specialty.
    Source: testcenter.kz (opens in a new tab)
  • In total, the test has 120 questions (maximum 140 points) and you get 4 hours. The format is the same as in 2025.
    Source: testcenter.kz (opens in a new tab)
  • Profile subjects depend on the group of specialties. For example: information technology — Mathematics and Computer Science; nursing and veterinary medicine — Biology and Chemistry; electrical engineering — Mathematics and Physics; law — World History and Fundamentals of Law. The full list is published by the National Testing Center.
    Source: testcenter.kz (opens in a new tab)
  • For creative specialties (for example, media and design), you take History of Kazakhstan and Reading Literacy through the UNT, and two creative exams at the university itself.
    Source: testcenter.kz (opens in a new tab)
  • Some universities have their own admission rules. Nazarbayev University, for example, requires a UNT score of at least 85, a GPA of 4.0 and English at IELTS 6.0 level.
    Source: nu.edu.kz (opens in a new tab)

Courses and opportunities

Opportunities near this field

Can you work before you turn 18?

Under Kazakhstan's Labour Code, teenagers can work, but with limits.

History of the career

No verified information is available in this section yet.

Well-known people in this field

No verified information is available in this section yet.

Is this right for you?

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