East Hampshire Apprentices Promised Construction Skills

Young people in East Hampshire are to be offered skilled jobs on Whitehill & Bordon’s construction projects in a unique deal with developers.

Apprentices will be given the construction skills they need to help build their home town’s ambitious future. 

There is a general and immediate ‘skills gap’ within the Construction sector. That applies to the operatives (carpenters, bricklayers, plumbers) but also to professionals (project planners, site managers, surveys etc).

In order to meet the governments ambitious house building and infrastructure developments, the Construction Trade & Industry Board (CITB) estimates that annual recruitment requirement between 2017-21 of nearly 36,000 nationally and approx. 4,000 in the South East alone.

Image: Taylor Wimpey

One of the UK's largest residential developers, Taylor Wimpey, say they will work with the town’s new Future Skills Centre to find apprentices, who will be trained and then potentially given full employment once their three year training programme is completed.

As a first step, Taylor Wimpey has committed to employing 10 bricklaying apprentices to work within the Dukes Quarter section of the redevelopment. 

An additional property developer, Zero C, has also committed to taking a number of carpentry apprentices within their housing development.

Image: EHDC councillor Ferris Cowper,

EHDC councillor Ferris Cowper, portfolio holder for Whitehill & Bordon, said: “The dream of ‘The Town That Builds Itself’, is becoming a reality!

"We are delighted to be able to work with these developers, who have a national reputation in collaboration and with the exceptional Future Skills Centre.

"I'd like to acknowledge the effort put into this by Charles Waggett, a Director of Taylor Wimpey, who adopted my suggestion with enthusiasm and turned it into this very exciting project.

"The regeneration of Whitehill & Bordon is all about hope for the future. Through this project our young people can have new hope of employment and prosperity in this amazing project that is setting national standards across the board."

Image: Future Skills Centre