Thirteen apprentices start career at Clark Contracts
15th September 2016 By Clark Contracts Ltd
Thirteen apprentices have joined Clark Contracts’ Academy, taking their first steps to becoming qualified administrators, joiners, bricklayers, decorators and plasterers.
The new trade apprentices will gain experience working across all divisions of the organisation; Construction, Fit Out, Small Works, Maintenance and Joinery Workshop. The experience gained on site will support the modules they will study at college.
The tradespeople of the future will spend four weeks at Clark Contracts’ offices in Paisley and Edinburgh, before their college courses commence at West College Scotland and Edinburgh College. Each new apprentice will have a Mentor at Clark Contracts who themselves started their careers as apprentices with the company and have progressed to supervisory and management positions.
And it’s not only trade apprentices that have been recruited, the construction, refurbishment and maintenance contractor has also welcomed an additional two administration apprentices who will work full time with Clark Contracts whilst studying a Modern Apprenticeship in Administration.
A number of the new apprentices attended Clark Contracts’ Academy Careers Evening which took place in March 2015. During this event, Clark Contracts welcomed over 300 people through its doors to inform attendees about career opportunities within Clark Contracts and the construction industry in general. Three of the individuals were recruited internally and are undertaking adult apprenticeships.
Academy Director, David Cooper said “It’s great to welcome these new apprentices into our Academy and we certainly hope they will be very successful in their careers with us. We look forward to working with them, to help them learn new skills and develop into successful tradespeople and beyond. We are committed to the regular recruitment of new entrants into the construction industry to help tackle the industry wide skills shortage and also to support the communities in which we work.”
Ian Hughes, Strategic Partnerships Director at CITB Scotland said: “Apprentices are the life blood of the construction industry and it is fantastic to see Clark Contracts invest in training the workforce of the future.
“The new website, Go Construct, is an excellent resource for young people and employers to find out about the support available, and the wealth of careers on offer. I wish the apprentices every success in their future careers.”
Clark Contracts is an Investors in Young People gold accredited employer and 5% Club member committing to ensuring at least 5% of its employees are studying towards formal qualifications. At present, 10% of the organisations workforce are studying towards formal qualifications at college or university in professions such as quantity surveying and construction management.
Founded in 1978, Clark Contracts Ltd is a privately owned construction, refurbishment and maintenance main contractor working across all sectors. Delivering contracts up to £10m in value across 5 divisions; Construction, Fit Out, Small Works, Maintenance and Bespoke Joinery Workshop, Clark Contracts employs over 260 staff with offices in the East and West of Scotland. The proportion of business derived from repeat customers each year has averaged 76% over the past ten years and 72% of customers class the main contractor as ‘Impressive’ or ‘First Class’.
