Building Futures

Berkeley Homes Eastern Counties arranged a construction ‘taster’ day for West-Kent College students in order for them to learn more about construction sites and the different trades and skills needed through the full build cycle.

The students were given an introduction to Berkeley Homes Eastern Counties ‘Building Futures Programme’ A scheme providing:

• Long-term career opportunities for school and college leavers in the construction industry.
• An alternative to the traditional university route to establishing a career.
• Fully funded further training and education to enable recruits to gain professional qualifications.
• Monthly rotations in each department: finance, land, planning, technical, commercial, build, customer services, sales and marketing and health and safety.
• A full-time job with a starting salary of £19,500 per year.

The students were given a tour of the construction site by a previous Building Futures recruit who now works as an Assistant Site Manager at our Royal Wells Park site who not only talked about the construction activities being undertaken but also his experiences on the Building Futures programme.

Following the day, Berkeley have built a stronger partnership with West-Kent College resulting in the following:

• The students who took part gaining a great knowledge of the differing and varied career opportunities within the construction industry.
• The students having an opportunity to apply for a place on the scheme for next day.
• The image of the construction industry being promoted.