Introducing UK Trade Jobs: a Blue Canvas product

We're introducing UK Trade Jobs, a specialist platform for people looking for skilled trade work, exploring an apprenticeship or hiring their next tradesperson.

Built in Derry and operated by Blue Canvas AI Ltd, it brings job search, practical career guidance, pay tools and a free trade CV builder into one place. This is our own product, developed around a straightforward aim: help people move from researching their options to taking a useful next step.

A job search shaped around trade work

An experienced electrician looking for a local role has different questions from a school leaver considering plumbing or a carpenter moving into site management. The trade, location, pay and qualifications all matter.

The trade job search starts with the work someone wants and where they can travel. Listings bring together direct employer adverts and partner sources, with routes through to the application. Candidates should always check the source advert for current availability, requirements and closing dates.

People who want to keep looking can set up free weekly job alerts for their chosen trade and area. Alerts are opt-in, with an email confirmation step and an unsubscribe link.

Practical routes into the trades

The site is also for people who have not yet found their first trade role. Its apprenticeship and career content connects the research stage with vacancy searches and CV preparation.

The apprenticeship hub includes a search connected to official Department for Education vacancies in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have separate official services, which the site signposts clearly. It does not present one England feed as complete UK-wide coverage.

The aim is to help someone compare a route, understand what an employer is asking for and find the appropriate place to apply.

A free CV builder for real trade experience

A useful trade CV needs to make relevant experience easy to spot: qualifications, site cards, practical skills and the work someone has actually done.

The free trade CV builder guides users through those details and provides a preview they can print or save as a PDF. People can start without an account, then move back to vacancies when their CV is ready. The tool does not send a CV to employers without the user's permission.

Pay guidance with its limits in view

The trade pay checker helps visitors explore day-rate estimates, compare employed salary routes and consider retraining costs.

Those figures are planning guides, not promised earnings. Actual pay depends on the role, area, experience, employment arrangement and employer. Keeping that distinction visible matters: a tool should help people ask better questions, not turn an estimate into a guarantee.

A focused route for employers

Employers can advertise a trade vacancy, set out the role requirements and manage their listing through an employer account. There is also a guided route for preparing an apprentice advert.

At publication, the single-listing option is advertised at £49 for one vacancy live for 30 days, with no subscription for that option. The employer page carries the current pricing and other options.

Reporting separates listing views and apply clicks from completed applications. That is an important distinction for an employer assessing a vacancy: a click is a sign of interest, not evidence that someone has applied or been hired.

Why we built it at Blue Canvas

UK Trade Jobs shows the kind of product work we care about: taking a specific audience's needs and connecting the information, tools and next steps around them.

The design question is not simply how to display more listings. It is how to help someone understand a role, prepare a relevant CV and keep track of suitable opportunities without starting their research again each time.

It is a specialist job platform, not a recruitment agency, and it does not promise a job, training place or salary. The focus is on making the search and preparation process more useful.

Explore UK Trade Jobs

• Looking for work? Browse trade jobs by trade and location.
• Starting out or changing career? Explore the apprenticeship hub and build your trade CV.
• Hiring? Visit UK Trade Jobs for employers to see the listing options.

For more examples of what we build, see our recent website and digital product projects. To discuss a product or workflow of your own, book a free 15-minute call with Blue Canvas.