19/11/08 - Ten local youngsters secure apprentices with Thomas Vale

Ten young people from Wolverhampton have secured places on a modern apprentice scheme with Thomas Vale Construction. The trainees, will either specialise in a particular trade such as carpentry, plumbing or plastering or train in a number of disciplines to become a multi skilled operative. They will be working on the Wolverhampton Homes’ Decent Homes programme made up of Thomas Vale, and other contractor partners. The programme is one of a network of National Skills Academies for Construction that give trainees the opportunity to learn skills on-site to equip them for a career in the construction industry.

“With the right level of commitment and good ‘old fashioned’ mentoring, each apprentice has the security of completing their apprenticeship over the next three years. Our apprentices will reflect the hard working people of Wolverhampton and we will all work together to ensure their success is Wolverhampton’s success and deliver, in the true sense – local jobs for local people”
Paul Dockerill, Director of Housing Regeneration, Thomas Vale

The decent homes scheme was set up by Wolverhampton Homes to bring all of the homes in Wolverhampton up to ‘Decent’ standard by 2012. Thomas Vale was selected to work on a four year programme which started in April 2007, it involves both Decent Homes and a programme of external and estate upgrading to some 35,000 properties. Less than half of council homes in the city currently meet the Government’s Decent Homes Standard and many millions of pounds need to be spent improving homes over the next six years.

Catherine Dass, head of HR strategy and organisational development at Wolverhampton Homes, said:“We are delighted to be helping young people to learn a trade and progress their career development with our partner contractors.This is a fantastic scheme which gives something back to the community and will help young people to learn valuable skills through `on the job’ training.This all links in to the work the Decent Homes Employment and Training Group have been undertaking in support of our National Skills Academy for Construction Status”.

Thomas Vale believes there is a national skills shortage which needs to be addressed, this further demonstrates their commitment to employing young people to educate the next generation of workers and secure the future of the West Midlands Construction Industry.

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