REDROW will give a helping hand to six more trade apprentices at developments across its Lancashire division later this year.
The homebuilder will be inviting applications in March as part of its ongoing effort to encourage and support new talent, as well as create a reliable career path and skills resource within the industry.
Renowned for its training programme, at any one time Redrow has around 250 apprentices in England and Wales learning one of the key housing trades, including bricklaying, plumbing, joinery, electrics and groundworks, as well as administration and technical roles within the office.
Together with graduates and other trainees, they make up around 15% of Redrow’s workforce who are all on some sort of formal training programme.
Josh Goulding, new entrants programmes manager at Redrow Homes, says: “We are proud of our record for nurturing talent and inspiring the next generation to build.
“Apprenticeships give young people the chance to learn a trade and embark on what can be a rewarding and fulfilling career; and with demand for skilled tradesman so high these days, it’s great to help the next generation to qualify.”
In this, National Apprenticeship Week (Feb 3-7), Redrow is currently gearing up for its 2020 recruitment drive. Opportunities will be promoted via the company’s careers website and apprentice assessment days will be held in April or May.
“We’ll be looking for a variety of apprentices in different trades and applications are welcome from all, not just school leavers. Older applicants are welcome and we’d also love to see more women applying for trade apprenticeships.” Josh adds.
Redrow’s Chorley-based Lancashire business has apprentices training at developments across Lancashire, Greater Manchester and parts of Merseyside.
Among them is 21-year-old Jay Barrow from Halewood in Merseyside, who is currently learning his trade at Bridgewater View, Mosley Common, near Manchester.
The former Halewood Academy pupil is in the fourth and final year of his plumbing apprenticeship having completed his NVQ3, and he is now doing his gas & heating qualification.
Jay, who is mentored on site by Redrow sub-contractor Prestige Plumbing, from Haydock, also attends Riverside College in Widnes once a week to study.
He says: “It’s been great. I love coming into work, I love being part of a team and, thanks to the training from Redrow and Steve Roberts from Prestige, I’m being helped to become a reliable plumber who can, and wants, to do a good job.
“It’s easy to look back on the work you’ve done and it always feels like such an achievement, it’s really rewarding.”
Jay had originally begun an engineering apprenticeship before realising it wasn’t for him and switching to a different one with Redrow: “I always wanted to do an apprenticeship because you are learning and getting paid to do it – and not racking up a huge debt.
“I saw it as a huge opportunity to get taken on by Redrow, who have paid for my courses and even bought my tools to set me up at the beginning.
“The support has been fantastic, and I love the fact that, working for a housebuilder, every day is different. I have never doubted that this was the right move for me, and I have discovered a job, a career, that I want to do for life.”
