Apprenticeships

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.

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.