‘Careers in Housebuilding’ initiative a resounding success with Linden Homes
Students from South Devon University Technical College (SDUTC) and South Devon College were given a taste of what a career in housebuilding could look like, when they visited Kings Gate in Kingsteignton, as part of Linden Homes’ ‘Careers in Housebuilding’ programme.
The visit saw some engineering and bricklaying students visit the flagship housing development, where they were joined by Councillor Jeremy Christophers from Teignbridge District Council. The councillor accompanied the SDUTC pupils on their visit, where he spoke to them about their career paths and the budding engineers rolled up their sleeves and learnt how to build a wall.
The initiative is designed to give students a chance to see the construction industry in action and learn about the various career options available upon leaving school, college and university, which includes roles as diverse as bricklaying, marketing, through to land and planning.
During their visit, the attendees were given a tour of the development, gained an insight into the sheer volume of job roles available under one roof, participated in a live Q&A with the project team and received helpful careers advice from the Linden Homes staff.
Councillor Jeremy Christophers, leader of Teignbridge District Council said: “My trowel skills are a bit rusty but the visit was not about my generation, who are still the biggest age group involved in the building trade. The visit by the SDUTC students was about the next generation of construction workers. Teignbridge provided the site for SDUTC’s premises, but my commitment goes one step further to ensure the students get out of the classroom and experience the reality of being on site.
“Teignbridge are happy to build relationships between students and building companies like Linden Homes. Helping young people understand that there are well-paid jobs right on our doorstep is a vital part of the work of a transformation district council.”
Alison Hannah, assistant principal at South Devon UTC, said: “Input from our employer partner, Linden Homes, enables our students to understand the bigger picture to their learning. They are incentivised and motivated by the knowledge that there are a wealth of employment opportunities in the engineering, environment and science industries and that their learning pathway to a successful career outcome is firmly underway. Their visit to the Kings Gate development gave them some new learning challenges and enabled our learners to get a flavour of how 21st century skills can be transferred to the workplace.“
Nigel Palmer, Linden Homes’ managing director, also attended the visit and said: “The students were so enthusiastic and the event achieved exactly what we wanted: to get the young people excited about housebuilding as a viable career option. We need so many skills under one roof in order to build each and every home, from technical abilities through to more vocational skills.
“I would encourage anyone who is soon to be leaving school, college or university to consider housebuilding as a desirable career path. Homes always need to be built and we need the best next generation of talent to meet the increasing demands for housing supply. We hope our Careers in Housebuilding event goes on to inspire our budding housebuilders to seriously consider a career path in our industry.”
Mike Prosser from South Devon College commented: “We are really grateful to the company for hosting us at the Careers in Housebuilding event at Kings Gate. It was fantastic to see the bricklaying students so engaged with the Linden Homes team. It’s an important time in their lives to consider the options available to them; you can’t beat showing the students a real-life working environment and I think they were quite surprised to learn about the variety of jobs available in one sector.”
Linden Homes has recently been recognised as a leading employer of new talent. For the second year running, as the housebuilding division of Galliford Try, Linden Homes has been named one of the top 100 companies – for graduates to work for by the UK’s leading graduate job review website, TheJobCrowd’ which reflects its commitment to nurturing the next generation of talent.
Described as the 'TripAdvisor for jobs', TheJobCrowd website hosts thousands of reviews, all written by graduate employees at companies across the UK. Its league table is unique as it is based entirely on employee feedback. Areas considered include company culture, training, career progression work/life balance, environmental awareness and benefits. According to TheJobCrowd, this means that companies included in the list are “really, truly, the best places to work.”
The ‘Galliford Try Academy’, Linden Homes’ parent company’s dedicated career development programme provides support in a number of ways and offers trainee, graduate and management training to fit varying strengths and skills. For more information visit: www.gallifordtry.co.uk/careers.
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Media can contact Emma Mackay on 077383 12960 for more information, images and interviews with Linden Homes.
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