Member Article

Barratt celebrates National Apprenticeship Week

As National Apprenticeship Week gets underway (March 3-7), Hampshire’s leading housebuilder, Barratt Homes, is celebrating the success of its apprentices locally.

The company, which last week announced plans to recruit up to 1,100 more apprentices, graduates and trainees nationally, recently held a dedicated seminar for its current apprentices

Community liaison manager Anthony Dimmick said the event gave everyone the opportunity to learn more about the opportunities working with Barratt and its sub-contractors.

“These people are our future and it was a great opportunity to talk about the Barratt values, and also talk about some of our successful apprentices so far,’’ said Anthony.

Successful apprentices include Eastleigh contracts manager Paul Ebbs who began his career with Barratt as an apprentice at the age of 16. Seven years later he reached the position of site manager where he led a £20m regeneration development of 237 homes in Eastleigh before becoming a contracts manager.

Paul has excelled at every stage of his career so far, winning numerous company awards, achieving NVQ, BTEC, HNC and degree level qualifications in construction, and in recent years he has also acted as a mentor to young apprentices joining the company.

Award winning site manager Matt Annalls from Waterlooville joined Barratt in 2003 having been a forklift driver previously. As an apprentice he completed a BTEC and NVQ3 before becoming an assistant site manager and then site manager.

In Southampton, Ben Hansford left school and became a roofer before deciding that an apprenticeship with Barratt would offer him a long term construction career and he is now a technical site manager at the Cardinal Park development.

The latest intake of apprentices working on Barratt developments includes James Johnson who is the first pupil from Redbridge Community School to secure an apprenticeship after studying the school’s Construction Baccalaureate.

He is working at Barratt’s Cardinal Park development as a carpentry apprentice with RMS Carpentry.

“These people are all proof that an apprenticeship is an ideal way into a great career in construction and we look forward to continuing our commitment,’’ said Anthony.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Barratt Homes .