New Apprentices Selected With the Help of Prince’s Trust

Six unemployed young people have started apprenticeships with Bateman Groundworks Ltd in a new partnership with the Prince’s Trust.

The successful six were among a group of applicants for our apprenticeship scheme that completed an employability course with the youth charity before final selection.

The six-week intensive training programme, Get into Construction, is designed to help young people struggling to find work in the construction industry become work-ready.

Bateman Groundworks worked with the Prince’s Trust to give the young people on-the-job experience on their construction sites to build their confidence and knowledge of the industry and how to be an employee before recruiting a new intake of apprentices.

Run in partnership with WATA (West Anglia training Association), the programme helped the group gain a CITB level 1 Award in Health and Safety and a CSCS card – a pre requisite for any young person looking to work on a construction site.

They spent three weeks on sites across Norfolk on Persimmon, Bovis Homes and Taylor Wimpey projects, working alongside full-time workers gaining insight and experience of a real construction site.

After the course, six were recruited by Bateman Groundworks and began their qualifications training at WATA before joining a site team.

Richard Bateman, managing director, said the company was committed to providing apprenticeships and employment to hardto- reach young people.

Another intake of apprentices would be recruited to start in January, he said.

“By working with the Prince’s Trust, we can expose more young people to the opportunities in construction and help them gain the real life experience, employability and build their confidence to make the next step into employment.

“We are looking forward to watching the development of our new intake when they join our sites. Apprenticeships are how we are future-proofing our company to build a secure and well-skilled workforce for the next decades.”

John O’Reilly, Director for The Prince’s Trust in Central England said: “Partnerships between The Trust and leading companies such as Bateman Groundworks are invaluable to offer jobless young people workplace experience and give them the confidence and skills they need to move into employment.”