Member Article

David swaps battlefield for building site

A former Army corporal from Driffield has swapped camouflage for shirt and tie, as leading housebuilder Persimmon Homes continues its recruitment drive to bring hundreds of ex-military personnel into the business.

David Verity, 30, has joined the Persimmon Homes Yorkshire team as a trainee buyer and is based at its regional office in Fulford.

Persimmon Homes has announced plans to employ up to 500 former Armed Forces staff to capitalise on their vast range of transferable skills.

David has become one of the first to make the switch from battlefield to housebuilder.

The ex-Infantry Section Commander dedicated 12 years to the British Army. During this time, he completed five operational tours and three overseas exercises, mostly on the frontline. He is now looking forward to channelling his energies into forging a new career.

David said: “This is a big change for me as I’ve never done anything like it before. It will be a big learning curve but I wanted a new career that would challenge me.

“I am very proud to have been in the Army and feel I learned many important skills, but after 12 years of travelling around I wanted to settle in one place, and with getting married later this year, now seemed the right time to make the change.

“I’m delighted that Persimmon Homes has taken this positive stance towards ex-servicemen and women. We have a unique background with many skills which can be utilised in other fields.”

Persimmon Homes Yorkshire, which has developments in Hull, Malton, Hornsea, Withernsea, Selby, Fulford, Scunthorpe and Doncaster is working with Nordic Focus Training, to retrain people from the Army, Royal Navy and RAF into various construction roles.

Group CEO, Jeff Fairburn, said: “We worked hard over the course of 2014 to develop this programme to help us meet a shortage of much-needed skilled tradesmen across the UK.

“Last year we appointed a dedicated ex-military resettlement specialist, Tommy Watson, to spearhead the programme and we began welcoming the first of our new employees in October. We are already on course to bring 500 new people into the business in 2015 and if our growth continues, we will repeat this in 2016.”

For more information, visit www.persimmonhomes.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Andrew McLagan .