As a contractor offering services in all types of roofing and cladding, over the last few years, SPV says it has found it increasingly difficult to source good quality skilled labour and good quality apprentices.
As part of its business plan and also following an audit back in 2016 that found the company had an ageing workforce, SPV now has a policy to take on five apprentices each year in various specialisms of the business to ensure it is passing its skills down through the generations and ensure our long-term success.
Unfortunately, the company has had a number of apprentices start and within a few months advise they are leaving as roofing is not what they expected and isn’t the career for them. As a business this has many impacts from the cost of training to the cost of recruitment to an unsettled workforce.
SPV Group says it has many youngsters approach the company asking if we can offer an apprenticeship but when asked which area of the industry they are interested in, they are often unaware of the different options and many specialisms.
It is sad to see that roofing is not promoted to school students enough and if they are interested in the industry, there are limited opportunities to explore the options and to gain practical experience to ensure this is the career for them.
Go Construct offers limited information and at a recent world skills event, it was disappointing to see that the brochure prepared by the Construction Industry Training Board did not even reference roofing as a career.
With this in mind SPV has been working towards setting up an in-house training centre for a number of years.
Following on from developing a partnership arrangement with Juniper training earlier this year, SPV are delighted to announce that it will be offering a vocational pathway to help students progress onto roofing and cladding apprentices and create a pipe line of young talent for the future.
SPV Group will be offering everything that students need to start their career in construction and become work-ready.
It will be offering two types of training courses which will be carried out between the SPV head office, this will be where all practical training will be undertaken, and the Juniper Training centre in Walsall, where English, maths and employability training will be completed.
Construction Study Programme for 16-18 year-olds
This will be an introductory course for young people to have access to a quality provision offer to decipher if they want to work in the industry.
It will be a 24-week programme: one day construction theory, one day workshop (simulated activity with rigs etc), two half-days maths, two half-days English, half-day PDBW, and half-day employability.
They will achieve a Level 1 Introduction to Construction Qualification.
Attendees who complete this will be site-ready having learnt practical roofing/cladding techniques, Level 1 or 2 English and maths qualifications, and they will have completed manual handling training, working at height training, asbestos awareness training and be in possession of a CSCS card.
There will be two intakes per year; one in August 2019 and one in February 2020 with 15 starts per intake.
The highest calibre students with a genuine interest to work in the industry progress onto an apprenticeship.
Roofing Occupations Level 2 Apprenticeships – launched February 2020
Students will be employed on an apprenticeship, achieve their blue CSCS card and complete a full Level 2 Roofing Occupations Qualification.
The training will be carried out between the SPV head office, this will be where all practical training will be undertaken, and the Juniper Training centre in Walsall, where English, maths and employability training will be completed.
All students who have completed the 24-week course will be work-ready with the required functional skills, practical skills and sector-specific training including Manual Handling, Asbestos Awareness and Working at height, as well as a CSCS card to ensure they are site-ready. Details of our official launch event to follow but the programme for 16-19 year olds us due to commence in August 2019! If you are interested in assisting with this new venture or know someone who may be interested, please contact info@spv-uk.co.uk
