The vital role of apprentices in construction

Ingleton Wood is urging companies to look towards the benefits of recruiting valuable apprentices to the construction industry.

The sector is predicted to continue to steadily grow between now and 2021, according to Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) data, amid warnings that recruitment needs to keep pace.

Our most recent apprentice recruit is former student at Billericay’s Mayflower High School, Fred Makins, who has been recruited to the role of apprentice building surveyor.

The CITB says over 1,000 new surveyors are needed each year. Fred, 20, from Billericay, is now studying part-time for a four-year building surveying degree apprenticeship course at Anglia Ruskin University.

Christopher Mabbutt, a director and building surveyor, said: “We have trialled the government-run Chartered Surveyor Degree Apprenticeships elsewhere in the business with great success, so it was logical for us to go down this route.

“Young people are the future of any industry and being able to shape them through offering on-the-job training supported by academic course work means they very quickly become crucial to our team, and the industry, at a very early stage.”

Stuart Fawell, assistant head teacher and head of Mayflower High School’s sixth form, said: “We are very proud of Fred's success. Apprenticeships offer students an excellent route into a career and we fully support all students looking to pursue this pathway.”

Fred said: “I chose Ingleton Wood because of the amount of effort that they put into training their people starting out in the industry and since starting work here that has been proven to me time and again.

“I’m currently rotating around different departments and have been to projects within both the healthcare and education sector so the work I’m doing is really varied, which I enjoy.”

He joins the practice, which now has over 200 employees, at a time when it has just increased its national league-table ranking to 48 in a list of the UK’s top 150 consultants.

Building magazine compiles the annual list of the top 150 architects, engineers, surveyors and project managers in the UK according to the number of employees, chartered staff and project fees. This year, Ingleton Wood, has jumped 25 places from 73 to 48.