Fifty young people are being given the opportunity to forge a successful career with one of the country’s largest housebuilders. 

Redrow Homes is launching its annual apprentice recruitment drive at the start of National Apprenticeship Week (March 9 - 13).

The Duchess of Northumberland used a visit to a major building project in the county to hammer home a positive message about careers within the construction industry.

During a tour of the Weavers Court development in Alnwick she urged young people to take advantage of an initiative which showcases the wide range of job opportunities in the sector.

Following the recent news that the CISRS scheme has breached the 50,000 cardholders mark, the first scaffolder to be issued with a CISRS card back in 1979 has been in touch – Allan Craigen, Director of NASC member company Heywood Scaffolding Services in Lancashire.

Allan, who worked for a small building company in the North West at the time, was amongst the first cohort of trainees to attend National Construction College East (Bircham Newton) under the new CISRS rules introduced at the end of the 1970s.

The New Year has brought with it an improved, fully revised and standardised CISRS Part 1 training package – which has recently been issued to all CISRS approved training providers.

Young people with a passion for design and engineering have been taken on by Redrow Homes after the housebuilder launched a new technical apprenticeship programme. 

Following a successful pilot scheme last year, Redrow has now developed a bespoke course with Coleg Cambria, based in North East Wales, which results in formal qualifications and is delivered in-house.

The inaugural NASC Apprentice of the Year Award winner – Josh Kerwin of Kaefer C&D Ltd–was presented with his trophy, certificate and £500 cash prize this week by NASC Training Director, Dave Mosley and Diane Wood, award scheme judge and Specialist Account Co-ordinator for CITB (Construction Industry Training Board).

The presentation took place at the offices of his employer KAEFER C&D Ltd in Mansfield, who also received a trophy and £500 to be spent on CISRS training with an approved provider.

A special training course developed between Merseylink, Riverside College and Halton Employment Partnership is helping local residents gain the knowledge and practical skills required for a career in construction.

Nine local people have completed the general construction operative training scheme, one of a series of pre-employment courses developed by Merseylink.

A new course has been launched to provide trainees with the skills to become the site manager of the future.

Redrow has re-launched its trainee site assistant programme, which now provides participants with formal qualifications and is the first scheme of its kind to be backed by NHBC (National House-Building Council).

Northumbrian Water (NW), like all water companies, has to be able to handle and respond to a variety of different circumstances and customer related incidents during the course of its operations. Following various sewer flooding incidents within its region NW is delivering a project to improve its customer service by streamlining the management and investigation processes surrounding such occurrences.

Whilst on-going works and scheduled maintenance operations continue to be undertaken by out-sourced contractors, NW is in the process of streamlining its reactive operations by ensuring that its own in-house response teams do not just have the capability to clear blockages and cleanse sewers but also have the added ability to carry out CCTV surveys and create industry standard structural and service condition reports.

A bricklaying apprentice from Leicester College is celebrating after taking joint gold medal at the WorldSkills UK 2014 national final, which took place at the NEC in November 2014.

Tom Sinfield, 21 from Shepshed, Loughborough, had already taken silver medal in the same competition a year before. To triumph in the regional heats of SkillBuild for the second year and then successfully compete against the other highest scorers nationally at the WorldSkills UK Skill Show, the UK’s biggests skill and career show, Tom has done exceptionally well.