Youthbuild UK has announced that Ryan Cook of Lovell, a housing solutions company based in Hull, is the 2015 Young Builder of the Year.
The UK-wide awards celebrate the achievements of young people who have overcome personal barriers to train and work for the construction industry. The awards ceremony was held at the House of Commons on 15 October 2015 and the winners were presented with a trophy, framed certificate, a cheque, and vouchers from Toolstation, one of the sponsors of the awards.
Now in its sixteenth year, the Young Builder of the Year Awards has attracted a growing number of entries from the future talent of the UK construction industry each year.
Over 120 people were present at this year’s ceremony, including politicians, senior figures from the construction industry, colleges, training organisations, finalists and their families. All the finalists finished the day with a trip on The London Eye.
Ryan Cook, who is currently completing an apprenticeship in bricklaying with Lovell in Hull, was named as Young Builder of the Year 2015. Ryan had to overcome a series of personal traumas before starting his apprenticeship.
Rebecca Russell of Durkan, London and Nathan Buckley of English Construction, Shrewsbury were chosen as the Joint Runners Up.
Brett Morrison of CDC, Sheffield was chosen as the winner of the 14 to 16 year-old category. He has recently started an apprenticeship as a painter and decorator.
The Construction Design Centre in Sheffield received a special award to support their ongoing work in giving opportunities to disaffected/disadvantaged young people to train for the construction industry.
The Rt Hon the Baroness Smith of Basildon, the President of Youthbuild UK, presented the awards together with award winning business woman Sadi Khan.
This year’s high profile judging panel was chaired by Stephen Ratcliffe, formerly Director of the UK Contractors Group; other judges included Neil Carroll, Commercial Development Director of Toolstation; Paul Chandler, Executive Vice President of Skanska; Rob Lockey, Training Services Manager of NHBC; Judy Lowe OBE formerly Deputy Chairman of CITB and Alasdair Reisner, Chief Executive of the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA).
The sponsors of the 2015 awards were NHBC, Skanska, Places for People, Toolstation and B&CE Charitable Trust.
