Member Article

Apprenticeships champion celebrates 50 years at Seddon

Roy Cavanagh from Salford recently celebrated half a century of service with builder and developer, Seddon, having spent 50 years at the North West-based firm.

In his current role as education and training executive, Roy flies the flag for skills and training in construction, helping to nurture the careers of talented young people through the company’s award-winning apprenticeship programme.

Roy, who is now 69, began the first half of his career at Seddon in payroll, but his affinity to people meant he eventually became an integral part of the company’s training offering.

A respected advocate for apprenticeships across the industry, his passion for training has led him to chair the 14-19 Education Group for construction and the built environment (C&BE), having lead the 14-19 Diploma in C&BE.

Roy has worked in close partnership with the Construction Industry Training Board, heading up the Construction Skills Network for the North and chairing North West Skills for Growth.

While working in construction, he simultaneously made a name for himself as a sports writer, with best-selling books about football and cricket.

In 2009, Roy was awarded the MBE for services to construction.

Roy Cavanagh said: “I’ve seen countless apprentices start their career at Seddon and am incredibly proud to help the next generation get their foot on the ladder.

“We now seem to be at a pivotal time: as the skills gap widens, apprentices are now more valuable than ever, especially as we aim to achieve the government’s high housebuilding targets.

“What’s clear to me in my 50 years in the business is that we need all parts of the industry to look deeper and work together to find ways to make sure that courses are in line with what happens on sites and guarantee that qualifications are as effective as possible in addressing the skills gap.”

Jonathan Seddon, managing director of Seddon, said: “Roy embodies Seddon’s values through and through. He’s passionate about seeing young people in construction develop into multi-talented, specialist tradespeople and push the boundaries of what they can achieve when they put their minds to it.

“Apprenticeships and training have been very important to our company throughout the years and Roy has been instrumental in building links with schools and colleges. It’s been an honour to have Roy lead the way on apprenticeships on our behalf for so many years.”

Having employed apprentices for more than 80 years of its 120-year existence, Seddon estimates to have trained in excess of 3,000 apprentices during that time.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Aaron Eastwood .