Month: November 2022
Apprenticeships
My apprenticeship journey
When I first started my apprenticeship, my weekly salary was around £92, this was working 5 days a week, 8am – 4.30pm. I had moved from an office based role where I was smartly dressed, always warm and had coffee on tap! It felt like I had made a huge mistake at that point, little was I to know an apprenticeship was about to change my life.
After completing 4 years as a painting and decorating apprentice, I travelled the world, lectured in a college and had a go at working self-employed. I loved my job and it always gave me satisfaction, one thing that was very obvious though was the need for more tradespeople on site. There was always a constant shortage, alongside this I had been working with young people who were desperate to do well for themselves however found their personal circumstances creating barriers they were unable to remove. That’s when I began working for tigers as a trainer/assessor, I worked directly alongside the apprentices and had a unique opportunity to make a real difference in their lives. 5 years on and I find myself with the absolute privilege of being able to being part of helping to create a brand new joint venture alongside Morgan Sindall paving the way for 30 young people to enter into an apprenticeship. When I stood up to welcome everyone to the launch event it was great to finally be announcing the start of the joint venture, but the thing that filled me with so much pride and hope was seeing the amount of people there willing to be involved in helping these young people achieve their goals.
What we need to do
If you are reading this, then like me you have a passion for the construction industry. Apprenticeships are the bread and butter of this sector and are key to addressing the skills shortages. Construction News recently produced an article advising the construction industry would need almost 217,000 new construction workers by 2025. No employer, college or training provider can do that alone, if there has ever been a time for the industry to come together, it is now. It is our obligation to work together to inspire and support young people to enter the industry whilst ensuring we have a sector that can continue to offer fantastic opportunity and continue to operate at the heart of the UK economy.
Inspiring Potential since 2001.
Paradigm Landscapes grow by Acquisition
As the most recent business to emerge from within the Tigers Group, Paradigm Landscapes operate from that same space of being commercially minded with explicit social purpose.
In this, our first year of trading, we have focused on creating three main themes for our business to focus on in terms of work delivery. Those have been commercial, residential and social with projects under each work classification completed to the highest of standards and on every occasion to our partners/customers satisfaction.
Alongside that development of operational delivery, we have embraced our social promise to ensure that we will always employ – on a full time basis – a minimum of 25% of our workforce from a justice background. Creating opportunities for those with lived experience of justice is at the heart of our working ethos.
Our business has been welcomed by partners across the West of Scotland and with the appointment of new Managing Director Brian Carmichael in recent weeks – who joins with extensive construction sector experience – we are certain those delivery themes will be expanded, and further innovative growth will follow.
And it is with growth in mind that we are today excited to make an announcement on a recently completed deal which will see our Residential teams busy throughout 2023.
It is with great pride and delight that Paradigm Landscapes can confirm the successful acquisition of the order book of Desirable Paving and Driveways Ltd – a family business and company of some 20 years standing in the landscaping sector, based on the south side of Glasgow – with work on several projects already underway.
The deal to take over the workbook helped the owner of Desirable, Ronnie Shepherd to take a step towards retirement and everyone at Tigers and Paradigm wish both Ronnie and his wife Mairi all the very best for their, what we hope will be, relaxing future together.
With several projects already underway we look forward to sharing some of the transformational – before and after – images, of those projects to be completed across Glasgow, on our website ParadigmLandscapes.co.uk
For further details on how Paradigm Landscapes can support your organisation or simply to find out more about our ethos and delivery please feel free to contact us at info@paradigmlandscapes.co.uk at your convenience.
Let’s start a new project together.