Following Gordon Brown’s new Backing Young Britain campaign last week to get more young people back into work and despite other Government initiatives, more than 3500 apprenticeship places have been lost in recent months. If the damage inflicted by the downturn is not going to damage the construction industry long term, it’s now the time for the hundreds of small and medium sized firms to play their part in training up young people.

Many construction firms are still performing well in the face of swinging tender prices by focusing on a better quality and giving service excellence, but all are looking to cut needless costs. For some firms this would mean axing the trainee programme (if there was one). For Oxford-based construction company Beard this was never an option as they so firmly believe in taking the long view - investing now to provide skilled capacity for the boom times ahead.  

The company, with offices in Cumnor Hill Oxford, Swindon and Guildford has a long established tradition of training young people, run for the past 10 years by chairman Alan Beard.  Indeed their trainee programme has been cited by Chris Matcham, Visiting Fellow at Henley Business School as being ‘the best young people/trainee scheme seen for years’. Today there are 19 trainees, each with a mentor, to ensure everyone is placed within the right department, with the right manager – a crucial factor in settling trainees in quickly.

Rather than believing a common industry view that trainees would have to be “carried” for three years, Beard, which has sourced 25 % of its current management and site staff from the programme, finds apprentices start contributing straight away.  Alan Beard believes that while trainees acquire professional skills, they also learn Beard’s working practices and processes and so absorb company culture and values, making them more valuable than other newly qualified personnel.

Keys to Success

The initial choice of candidate is vital.  Those with a spark of ambition and enthusiasm can be trained to end up with the ability, application, determination, energy, perseverance and leadership skills that Beard prize most highly.  Indeed virtually all who are taken on the programme end up with these vital qualities.  However, there are few at the outset, who even have these qualities.

A two year programme of basic knowledge, competency and advanced understanding changes quarterly to keep the whole programme fresh and quarterly appraisals spot any knowledge gaps and problems early on.  Trainees are invited to say exactly what they think and be as rude as they like, leaving Alan Beard to solve all problems and fill knowledge gaps.

To improve communications and understanding there is a ‘reverse role programme’ where the trainees interview Alan Beard and a new ‘passive to active’ plan.   This encourages trainees to move from taking instructions to have enough experience and confidence to use their initiative and becoming more pro-active.  

Apprentices are actively encouraged to gain industry qualifications and following NVQs the Beard trainees proceed to National and Higher National certificate levels and begin to lead contracts, becoming site foreman and agents.  The office based members take BSc degrees in Quantity Surveying or Construction Management, working four days for the company and one day at university.  This intensive and testing three years is rewarded by having no fees and therefore no student debt!

While the apprentices learn from their college tutors on day release, Alan Beard believes they also learn the basics from everyone around them.  “There are so many ex-trainees in the business, a spirit of community has built up to give them support, so they know there’s always someone on hand to help.”  

Critical to the programme’s success is senior management involvement and buy-in to make it structured, meaningful and developmental. Where the Beard trainee scheme shines is in giving ‘real jobs’ to complete leading to opportunities to progress within the firm.  Alan Beard sees his most vital role, however, is to listen to both the trainees and the mentors and to identify quickly any seeds of dissatisfaction and in righting any perceived wrongs and in developing the programme to meet new business needs.

Conclusion

Alan Beard believes the low staff turnover Beard enjoys is due not only to its employee’s commitment, but also due to the strength of it investment in people and constant training.   While there is plenty of pent up demand and eager youngsters to fill the places, Alan Beard believes they should be given a chance for apprenticeships.  However, as Beard cannot take on any more, Alan Beard is now challenging more local companies in the industry to consider the benefits of a professionally run apprenticeship scheme and invest in their skills base for the forthcoming upturn.