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Training

The East Grinstead branch is working with Downland Housing Association on an Open Book Partnering contract for the day- to-day repairs and maintenance of their properties.

In October 2008 the team from Rydon Maintenance teamed up with their Downland Housing Association partners to initiate an Apprenticeship and Educational Opportunities initiative for their local community.

The Programme Drivers

Despite the current recession, the construction industry continues to be one which is particularly suited to deliver long term career opportunities for young people from diverse backgrounds and with varying levels of formal education. However, there is concern within the industry that, when the recession ends and the industry begins to pick up again, there may be a shortage of skilled labour available in the marketplace to deliver the increase in demand.

Creating apprenticeship opportunities is one way of helping to reduce this potential shortage of skills. Peter Rogers, chair of Construction Excellence has said:

Additionally, apprenticeships bring value to the sponsoring company and can provide an important source of future supervisory and management staff.

The Business Benefits

Running programmes such as this provides great benefits for everyone involved. Firstly, of course, it benefits the young people who attend by giving them the opportunity to experience construction as a profession and by offering some the opportunity of full time work, all within their own community.

Rydon also benefits because it helps the company to recruit successfully whilst, at the same time, providing our current staff with important opportunities to develop their own skills in training and mentoring.

Our partners, in this case Downland HA, also benefit because they are actively engaged in providing opportunities to their community residents.

"Apprenticeships are about exciting young people in the opportunities the construction industry offers and by demonstrating our commitment to investing in their future, they help us invest in the industries future and the initial step towards solving the skills shortage."

Peter Rogers, Chair of Construction Excellence

Taking Action

The scheme consisted of jointly organising two days of ‘taster sessions' at different locations, enabling a total of 24 young people from the community to attend. Each session gave the young people a chance to gain first hand experience in the basics of plumbing, plastering, carpentry and electrics, as well as receiving presentations on Health & Safety, including risk assessment, preparing method statements and the importance of using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)Downland HA covered all of the costs and the training was all delivered by Rydon staff.

Downland HA covered all of the costs and the training was all delivered by Rydon staff.

One of the key challenges faced was getting buy-in from staff. It required effective engagement with Downland, the community centres, supervisors and operative teams as well as pre-planning, pre-briefing and strict project management, setting out clear plans and deliverables. By doing this we were able to positively engage the whole team who were most glad to take on the challenge of contributing to the community.

Following the taster sessions, Rydon invited the best of the candidates for a full weeks' work experience and the possibility of being selected for a full apprenticeship placement with the company. A total of eleven young people were chosen, six from the Brighton area and five from the Burgess Hill area.

During this period, Rydon operatives acted as the students' "mentors" helping them to feel confident and offering them support and advice with their tasks. At the end of their weeklong placement, Downland Housing supplied a good quality tool kit to all participants.

Following the work experience stage, Rydon offered two of the young people, Ryan Hills and Simon Turner, the opportunity to join the company on a "Construction Apprenticeship Scheme". This offers them full time employment with one day a week release to attend college.

Why CSR?

Apprenticeship and Education Opportunity is good CSR: it meets Rydon's business needs for staff development through skills acquisitions and contributes to the prequalification process for bidding contracts and strategic partnerships.

Rydon is committed to imbedding CSR into all business processes and to positively engaging staff, stakeholders and suppliers in this process.

What Next?

With the success of the Apprenticeship and Education Opportunity programme, Rydon and Downland Housing are planning to hold monthly "Home Maintenance Training Courses" in sheltered schemes, hostels and community centres. These will help ordinary residents to learn how toperform simple repair and maintenance tasks in their homes.

Carpentry

• How to hang a cupboard door
• Fixing/putting up shelves
• Fitting locks
• Fixing hinges

Plumbing

• Fixing a leaking tap
• How to change a tap washer
• Repair leak to a sink

Electrics

• Electrical safety
• How to re-wire a plug
• How to change a fuse

Plastering

• Mixing plaster
• Applying plaster

We also continue with our summer work experience for youngsters in local schools.

"Tell me and I'll forget; Show me and I may remember; Involve me and I'll understand"

Chinese Proverb