Leeds-based drainage contractor, Jet Aire, has appointed Simon Lawton to its board as non-executive chairman. Jet Aire’s board has been working with Simon since 2014 on various ad hoc projects. In the past six months, he has been closely working with the directors and senior management team to lay the
ArtificialGrass.com has obtained a new apprentice, who will be working at the company’s head office in Market Overton, Rutland. It has been announced that Hannah Barker will be joining the company as a Sales Coordinator. The 23-year-old will join ArtificalGrass.com while completing an ICT Level 2 course as well as
Leading learning provider Develop Training Limited (DTL) has strengthened its management team with two new appointments. Nichola Kitching joins DTL as Business Development Manager, bringing with her more than ten years’ experience in the welfare-to-work and education sectors, most recently specialising in apprenticeships and work-based learning in roles covering sales,
Global infrastructure services firm AECOM has appointed Roma Agrawal as Associate Director. Roma joins the company’s growing structural engineering team in London and will be responsible for both business development and project delivery work. Roma joins AECOM from Interserve, where she was Design Manager. She was previously Associate Director at
Multitech Site Services is the leading temporary electrics specialists in the UK. The company has announced that they are reinforcing their commitment to the next generation. This has been achieved by becoming the first contractor of its type to join the 5% Club. This Club is an industry led initiative
Construction and infrastructure workload expectations continue to improve with respondents the most positive since the referendum, according to the latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Construction and Infrastructure Market Survey, Q1 2017. The pace of growth has increased across all sectors pointing to a widespread improvement in the sector.
Newark and Sherwood Homes, the housing providers have announced that they will be launching an apprentice scheme. The first of its kind for the company, the Recruiting and Employing Apprentices Championing Housing Champions was launched on the 4th May at the Future First Expo in Newark. The company has dedicated
Unispace, the global design firm with integrated project delivery capabilities, has appointed Roz Allen as a Senior Associate, Client Relations based in its London studio in Southwark. Roz was most recently at Soho House where as Project Director she looked after commercial and project management for the UK design and
The latest Jobs Barometer research carried out by NEBOSH has confirmed that UK employers expect applicants to have the relevant qualifications for Health and Safety positions. Applicants are expected to have the relevant professional qualifications for a Health and Safety position before applying. The research has shown that 90% of
A new construction training centre in the North East of England is nearing completion. The purpose built facility has been created at Burnt House Farm in Bedlington, South Northumberland. Tony Rutherford is a Northumberland-based entrepreneur who is part of WPR Farms as well as having established Trainbase Ltd. Rutherford has
Leeds-based drainage contractor, Jet Aire, has appointed Simon Lawton to its board as non-executive chairman. Jet Aire’s board has been working with Simon since 2014 on various ad hoc projects. In the past six months, he has been closely working with the directors and senior management team to lay the foundations for the next phase of the company’s growth in providing professional drainage solutions to commercial, industrial and domestic clients. Simon has an extensive track record as a finance director in rapidly growing entrepreneurial businesses, notably Tribal Group Plc which he helped to grow from a start-up to a £250m+ (sales) business over a 10-year period. He was also a founder trustee of the Tribal Group Foundation – funding health and education projects in Africa, India and Nepal – and spent two years in Sub-Sahara Africa working on various investment projects, including a 5-star island tourist resort in the Indian Ocean off Mozambique. In 2013, Simon helped to co-launch a new start-up support service business, Benula Capital Limited, focusing on the recruitment and HR market. Benula currently holds equity stakes in several companies (UK and International) to help them execute an accelerated growth strategy by providing strategic, financial and development advice and coaching to talented owner managers. Jet Aire managing director, Charlie Kirk, said: “I am delighted that Simon has agreed to accept the role of non-executive chairman. His advice will be invaluable to us as we continue to drive the business forward. Jet Aire continues to enjoy sustained and consistent growth – since 2014 the business has doubled in size, sales and profitability. The company has ambitious growth plans over the next three to five years. We continue to build on solid foundations and have an excellent management team in place.”
ArtificialGrass.com has obtained a new apprentice, who will be working at the company’s head office in Market Overton, Rutland. It has been announced that Hannah Barker will be joining the company as a Sales Coordinator. The 23-year-old will join ArtificalGrass.com while completing an ICT Level 2 course as well as her Business Administration Level 2 Diploma at Rutland Adult Learning. The Adult Learning are offered in partnership with Peterborough Regional College. Hannah expects to have completed her apprenticeship in 2018. Hannah is from North Luffenham which is in Rutland. As part of her apprenticeship she attends college once a week and is currently enjoying the new challenge. Before her new role at the artificial grass company, Hannah worked as a Food and Beverage Manager for five years. Now Hannah has embarked on an apprenticeship with the intention of pursuing a career in sales. The market for artificial grass is quite large and hopefully Hannah will have a lot of different opportunities by choosing an apprenticeship with ArtificialGrass.com. Completing an apprenticeship also means that Hannah will be able to work and earn, gaining practical experience while completing her training. The Sales Coordinator role is diverse, and involves a large amount of interacting with customers and offering the best possible customer service. Hannah believes that there is a huge amount of potential at ArtificialGrass.com and she has been commended for her enthusiasm to develop and learn. Hannah has been developing her current skills and has been using them to support her employer as well as to gain her qualification. ArtificialGrass.com is considered the largest supplier of synthetic turf to the builders’ merchant industry. The company also offers installation training as well as other educational programmes in order to support builders’ merchants when they are selling their products. This means that the company is able to capitalize on a growing market.
Leading learning provider Develop Training Limited (DTL) has strengthened its management team with two new appointments. Nichola Kitching joins DTL as Business Development Manager, bringing with her more than ten years’ experience in the welfare-to-work and education sectors, most recently specialising in apprenticeships and work-based learning in roles covering sales, account management and operations. Marisa Harris has been appointed Skills Funding Agency (SFA) Administration Manager, drawing upon several years’ experience of working for a training provider managing SFA funding and administration with a detailed understanding of funding rules, the Individual Learner Record and compliance relating to apprenticeships. Chris Wood, CEO of DTL, said: “We are delighted to welcome Nichola and Marisa to the team. They join us at an exciting time for our business, as we continue to grow following our listing on the SFA’s register of apprenticeship training providers (RoATP). Our inclusion in the register underlines the quality of our apprenticeship programmes and our ability to deliver training of the very highest level for large organisations in critical infrastructure sectors. We are now in a very strong position to help employers utilise their Apprenticeship Levy payments and to deliver the training that meets both their needs and the wider needs of the country.” DTL can provide specialist training at any of its bases nationwide, in addition to delivering on-site training solutions. All courses are fully accredited by the relevant leading professional industry bodies, which include City & Guilds, ILM, IGEM, Gas Safe Register and IOSH. Visit www.developtraining.co.uk for more information.
Global infrastructure services firm AECOM has appointed Roma Agrawal as Associate Director. Roma joins the company’s growing structural engineering team in London and will be responsible for both business development and project delivery work. Roma joins AECOM from Interserve, where she was Design Manager. She was previously Associate Director at WSP and has worked on projects including The Shard at London Bridge, One Nine Elms and Crystal Palace Station. Roma has received multiple awards during her career to date, both for her technical ability and for her contribution to raising awareness of engineering as a career. Last year Roma was included in the Top 50 Women Engineers in the UK list, which was compiled by The Telegraph and Women’s Engineering Society, and in 2014 she was recognised by the Association for Consultancy and Engineering with the Diamond Award for Engineering Excellence. She has appeared in engineering documentaries on the BBC and ITV and has featured in various UK newspapers and magazines to help raise the profile of the profession. Commenting on her new role, Roma said: “I look forward to working on AECOM’s wonderfully diverse range of projects while also continuing to promote engineering as a career to young people, particularly among under-represented groups.” Mike Burton, Director, AECOM, said: “We are delighted that Roma is now part of the Award-Winning AECOM team – bringing her engineering expertise to our projects and her passion for the profession to our people.” Roma is a chartered engineering with both the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and is a fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). She holds a masters degree in general structural engineering at Imperial College London and a degree in physics from Oxford University.
Multitech Site Services is the leading temporary electrics specialists in the UK. The company has announced that they are reinforcing their commitment to the next generation. This has been achieved by becoming the first contractor of its type to join the 5% Club. This Club is an industry led initiative which is focused on increasing the momentum to recruit trainees in order to change the fortunes of the young people in the UK. Multitech, winners of the Business Excellence Award have been employing trainees since the company started operating in 1998. The company’s aim of hiring young people was to enable them to become more qualified and allow them to start building a long-term career path in the construction industry as an electrician. It has been estimated that 10% of the workforce at Multitech at the moment are trainees. This figure is twice what is required in order to join the 5% Club. The business is the first temporary site services contractor to join the club which is great news for the business and might push more in the sector to look in to hiring more trainees. The 5% Club initiative is great for setting a target for businesses. The initiative shares values and ethos with Multitech and it works to spread awareness of the value in trainees. The campaign for 5% Club scheme was initiated by QinetiQ, the defence technology company. The technology business aimed to get the public and private companies around the UK to commit to increasing the number of apprentices, sponsored students and graduates they allow on to formal programmes. The target is to make up 5% of the business workforce with trainees within five years. It is thought that this campaign will tackle the chronic skills shortage experienced in the industry as well as reducing the youth unemployment in Britain. These improvements should then keep the UK at the forefront of innovation. Members of the scheme are required to publish their progress in an Annual Report.
Construction and infrastructure workload expectations continue to improve with respondents the most positive since the referendum, according to the latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Construction and Infrastructure Market Survey, Q1 2017. The pace of growth has increased across all sectors pointing to a widespread improvement in the sector. Survey in brief National workloads expectations improve with the most positive sentiment since the referendum. Road and rail set to remain the fastest growing infrastructure sub sectors over next twelve months. Quality of available workers cited as a barrier to growth. Workloads and 12 month projections In Q1 2017 27% more respondents reported an increase in workloads, (up from +18% in Q4 2016). Expectations for the next 12 months also remain firmly positive particularly for activity levels although they have reduced slightly in case of profit margins. The shortage of skilled labour persists in UK infrastructure and construction and is again widely cited by contributors as a factor potentially impacting the performance of businesses working in the industry. Looking at the different sectors, 34% more respondents cited an increase in private housing output rather than a decrease, which puts it above the other sectors for the pace of growth once again; this has been the case since Q1 2013. While the commercial sector saw the largest growth in workload for the quarter (compared with Q4 2016) with 31% more respondents seeing a rise, infrastructure workloads continue to grow steadily with the most significant increases in rail, road and energy categories. These sectors are also viewed as the most promising sectors in infrastructure for the next 12 months. Breaking this down, 60% of respondents felt that repair and maintenance work of existing structures is the most needed type of investment in their area whilst 40% felt investment in new projects was necessary. Growing skills shortages As workloads increase, skill shortages are still sighted as a significant problem to the industry with 53% of respondents stating a shortage of skilled labour to be a key impediment to growth. This is slightly up from 50% in the last quarter. In recent reports, the proportion of respondents noting skill shortages to be the major barrier to growth had come down slightly but the latest results along with surveyors’ comments suggest labour shortage pressure across the UK construction sector is intensifying once more. Alongside this, 65% of respondents reported insufficient availability of quantity surveyors, with skill shortages in this area becoming increasingly prominent since 2012. The results also point to the quality of available workers (rather than simply the quantity) being the principle driver in skill shortages, with 67% of respondents taking this view. Looking at this further, 59% of contributors feel that improved education pathways and training would the most effective policy response to alleviate labour supply pressures, whilst 31% of contributors feel direct government subsidisation of training would be the most effective. Financial constraints and their impact Meanwhile, financial constraints are still the most significant obstacle to growth with 70% of respondents citing this as an issue. Planning and regulation remains a significant impediment to growth with 61% of respondents citing this as an obstacle (up from 53% in Q4 2016). At the same time, tender prices are expected rise in the next 12 months. Specifically, 69% more respondents believe tender prices will go up in the building sector (rather than fall). The expected increase in tender prices may signal rising costs and shrinking profit margins which is also reflected in the 12 month expectation of profit margins easing from +26% in Q4 2016 to +18% in Q1 2017. Regionally all parts of the UK have observed an increase in pace of output growth in Q1, with the exception of Northern Ireland. The was due to the pace of growth slowing within the infrastructure, private industrials and public non-housing sectors. Output growth gathered the most pace in London and the South East where the net balance rose from +7% to +22%. From http://www.rics.org
Newark and Sherwood Homes, the housing providers have announced that they will be launching an apprentice scheme. The first of its kind for the company, the Recruiting and Employing Apprentices Championing Housing Champions was launched on the 4th May at the Future First Expo in Newark. The company has dedicated a great deal of time creating their own apprenticeship scheme that will be able to showcase the wide range of careers available as part of the housing sector. This Recruiting and Employing Apprentices Championing Housing, or REACH scheme has been given a boost from the announcement of the apprenticeship levy. This levy is will aim to create as many as 20 million apprenticeship placements by 2020. The Futures First Expo in Newark is a new event that will focus on celebrating everything Newark and Sherwood has to offer in regards to careers training and education. Launching the REACH scheme at the first Expo is a great way to run a new event as well as promote the opportunities that will be available for apprentices in the housing sector. The new apprenticeship scheme will help Newark and Sherwood train those that are looking to develop a career in the housing services sector. The company is planning on growing the number of apprentices that they take on each year, which means that there will be more placements available for those wanting to do an apprenticeship in this industry. At the Future First Expo, Newark and Sherwood were joined by other local businesses in order to discuss the merits of the REACH apprenticeship programme and the career opportunities that will be available within the company. Newark and Sherwood is a company that can offer a great deal of career opportunities and was ranked as 27th in industry magazine as part of the Inside Housing’s Innovation Index.
Unispace, the global design firm with integrated project delivery capabilities, has appointed Roz Allen as a Senior Associate, Client Relations based in its London studio in Southwark. Roz was most recently at Soho House where as Project Director she looked after commercial and project management for the UK design and build element of its business. Before Soho House, Roz was at Mace where she worked her way from a graduate joiner to commercial manager working on a broad spectrum of construction projects from fit outs for JP Morgan Chase and Invesco to the large-scale refurbishment of Café Royal. Anthony Hazell, Managing Director, Europe, said: “As Unispace continues its rapid expansion across the UK and Europe, our team continues to grow – Roz is a highly talented individual with valuable experience working on the client side for a high-end design and development brand. She has been described a “star in the making” by the property press and we are very fortunate to have her on board.” Roz will be based with the client relations team in London, working on projects across Unispace’s European offices including those in Madrid and Lisbon. “Joining Unispace is an exciting prospect” explained Roz Allen. “The firm promotes an innovative, solutions focused methodology to clients that is founded on exceeding their expectations. It is great to be part of a dynamic team and delivering the best service to the industry.” “There is a real demand from the clients in the market for an alternative approach and, I believe, that Unispace is capitalising on this. The firm is challenging established conventions and bringing its singular methodology to bear on leading projects around the world.”
The latest Jobs Barometer research carried out by NEBOSH has confirmed that UK employers expect applicants to have the relevant qualifications for Health and Safety positions. Applicants are expected to have the relevant professional qualifications for a Health and Safety position before applying. The research has shown that 90% of the job advertisements in the Safety, Health and Environment sectors specifically asked applicants for at least one NEBOSH qualification. This percentage is up from 83% when the research was carried out last year. The NEBOSH Jobs Barometer Survey is research that takes place every year. The Barometer reviews 100 health and safety positions that are advertised nationally in the UK. The research looked at positions available between the 25th January 2017 and the 24th February 2017. 50% of all the positions advertised during this period specified a NEBOSH Diploma, which is a degree equivalent degree. In these potions, where a NEBOSH Diploma was required, the advertised salary was up to £49,000. This is 16% above the £42,000 top end salary that was advertised when a Diploma was not specified. More employers are requiring a higher level of qualification from their applicants, it is thought that this is an attempt to reward those who have chosen to continue their professional development. 51% of vacancies advertised nationwide wanted a NEBOSH Certificate-level qualification, this is an increase from the 45% found last year and the 38% that were found in 2015. It is thought that the top industry qualification is NEBOSH and it is often specified when advertising jobs as the preferred qualification. It has also been found that the position is more likely to require a NEBOSH qualification if the hiring manager has followed the same qualification route and has had a positive experience. Construction and engineering are thought to be the dominant sectors in the Safety, Health and Environment positions, although they have experienced a fall from 39% to 35% of the job advertisements since last year.
A new construction training centre in the North East of England is nearing completion. The purpose built facility has been created at Burnt House Farm in Bedlington, South Northumberland. Tony Rutherford is a Northumberland-based entrepreneur who is part of WPR Farms as well as having established Trainbase Ltd. Rutherford has invested £350,000 in to building the new centre for construction training. When the facility id finished it will be opened to provide accredited training and testing across several different awards bodies in order to offer the widest opportunities for the users of the center. Ther will be a large range of CPCS, NPORS training as well as other short courses, street works and Level 2 Plant NVQ’s. Rutherford’s new business has already created four new jobs before it is open for business. There are two training administrators as well as a tester and assessor already hired for the training center. However, this number will increase when the center is finished. Tony Rutherford identified the opportunity to build the construction training centre after discovering that many businesses in this sector send their employees out of the region in order to gain the necessary qualifications that will soon be on offer in this facility. The gap in the market will soon be filled by Rutherford’s facility that aims to offer high quality training across a wide variety of professional courses. It is believed that Trainbase will be the largest facility of its kind in the North East region of the country. It is also expected to be the only facility that will offer a full range of courses all from one location. The training centre will be located at Burnt House Farm which is a 20-acre site that incorporates a 15-acre all weather digging area. The facility will include an outdoor training area, as well as office accommodation with more space for training, testing and conference rooms.
