Housebuilding giant Barratt Homes has partnered with PM Training to take on three new apprentices at a new housing development in Staffordshire.
The housebuilder’s Gloster Gate development on Albermarle Road in Cross Heath consists of 117 new two, three and four-bedroom homes and the apprentices will be learning skills ranging from bricklaying to plastering and electrics.
The apprenticeship partnership is between Barratt Homes and PM Training, a Staffordshire-based social enterprise, part of the Aspire Group, which offers work opportunities to 16-to-18 year olds in the region. The opportunities range from apprenticeships to industry work experience, study programmes and vocational training.
The three apprentices that have been taken on include 17-year-old carpentry apprentice James Cassidy, from Newcastle, Aaron Baddeley, 18, also from Newcastle, and Richard Bailey, 19, from Stoke. The latter two apprentices are both specialising in bricklaying.
Chief executive of PM Training, Will Nixon, told This Is Staffordshire: "We're delighted that Barratt has taken on these three apprentices to help give them a better chance of finding work later on. It means local people are gaining work experience as well as helping to regenerate their local communities."
Project director at Barratt Mercia, Andrew Dauncey, told the news source: "We firmly believe that our role isn't just to build new homes but to establish strong communities as well, which is why we endeavour to recruit trade apprentices at all our developments and Gloster Gate is no exception.
"The apprentices will learn first hand what it's like to work on a live construction site and gain valuable skills for the future,” Mr Dauncey added.
One of the apprentices, James Cassidy, confirmed that he would like to become a self-employed carpenter at some point in the future, and said that this apprenticeship would go a long way to helping him achieve that goal.