We are very excited to announce the launch of our apprenticeship programme this year to help combat the UK’s skills shortage and educate the next generation of construction workers.
The UK Construction Industry is facing a skills shortage, with both Brexit and the COVID-19 global pandemic furthering this. The number of EU workers coming to the UK has reduced significantly.
The Federation of Master Builders ‘State of the Trade’ survey 2021 found that 38% of builders are struggling to hire bricklayers, stating “There is a lack of quality skilled entrants into the industry”. The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has reported that the industry will need to find 160,000 new recruits by 2023 to keep up with demand. In order to keep up with demand, there needs to be a focus on the 14 – 19 year olds, those making career choices.
This is why we have started the Cotterill Contractors Apprenticeship scheme - we are passionate about encouraging new talent into careers in construction and apprenticeships are a great way to learn a trade, with young people benefitting from structured learning, on-the-job experience and our ongoing support.
We offer a Groundworks Level 2 apprenticeship as one of our schemes, with our latest apprentice, Joe O’Hanlon, who’s been with the company for 5 months, highly recommending the scheme: “I am really pleased with the opportunity to work for such a supportive and expanding company, they have helped me learn new skills and gain invaluable experience”.
Our Contractors Director, Tom Robinson, added “the scheme is really helping us bring our vision for the future into action - we are committed to educating the next generation of groundworkers”.
Our apprenticeship scheme is something we are very proud of here at Cotterill’s and something we are hoping to expand upon. We are actively looking for a Pump Engineer apprentice to join our expanding team, gaining a Level 2 qualification - if you are interested please contact Tom at tom.robinson@cotterillcivils.co.uk, or ring us on 0121 461 5311.