As part of The Calico Group’s ‘Constructing the Future’, Dylan Dand was given the chance to build a career…by building a bungalow!
Four organisations came together to open doors for this local lad in his dream career as a bricklayer. In association with the National Skills Academy and the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), Dylan secured an apprenticeship position at Nelson based Keith Walton’s Brickworks, the contractors working on the Ring Stones’ housing development in Padiham.
Dylan said, ‘the apprenticeship has increased my confidence and it has made me grow up and increased my self-awareness and responsibilities. It has enabled myself and my colleague apprentice Daniel Evans to put our skills into practice and basically build the majority of a bungalow.’
MD of Keith Walton’s Brickworks, Harry Clayton, has been impressed with the work – ‘The shared apprenticeship scheme through Constructing the Future has been a success for us. It has enabled us to recruit apprentices that we truly believe want to be a brick layers. They have proven that they are committed to their careers and this is evidenced in the success we have had with our apprentices.’
Being able to operate alongside so many well established providers allows The Calico Group to create opportunities for many young local people in their chosen fields, helping them to gain vital skills and experience. Something Dylan values highly – “My confidence has grown so much and I’ve had real life experience of working on a site, getting to know my peers and helping me progress into a man. I’m so glad I chose to do the apprenticeship instead of a full time college course”.
The Calico Group has become the first North West Housing Association to achieve National Skills Academy for Construction (NSAfC) status, helping to create a number of quality training and employment opportunities in the construction sector.
The CITB’s NSAfC accreditation supports organisations to create employment and training opportunities when procuring construction work. The toolkit contains a series of industry approved benchmarks, set against eight key performance indicators to make sure opportunities are created for all members of the community and the existing construction workforce.
The Calico Group has been working with a number of local authorities across Lancashire to support them to create training and employment outcomes on construction projects by using the NSAfC toolkit.
