Member Article

Building degree course for Barratt North East trainees

Housebuilder Barratt North East has appointed two new trainee Assistant Site Managers to help manage the growing demand for quality new homes across the region.

Iain Bickerstaff and Darren Cuming will also be among the first Barratt Group employees in the UK to go through a bespoke foundation degree course, which is the first of its kind in the industry.

The course has been designed by Barratt with Sheffield Hallam University and will lead to a BSc Honours degreequalification in Residential Development and Construction.

Iain, 28, of Hartlepool, is currently based at the housebuilder’s The Limes development in Coxhoe.

He said: “This role has given me the chance to be involved in many different aspects of the company and I’m really enjoying getting stuck in to the construction side of things.

“My site managers Kevin Anderson and Tony Ashcroft have helped me settle into the role comfortably and are showing me how things are done.”

Darren, 22, who lives in Jesmond, Newcastle, is based at Elba Park in Houghton-le-Spring, a development being built by Barratt sister company David Wilson Homes.

He said: “This role has given me the chance to broaden my professional horizons and I’m hoping to work my way up through the ranks, as a result of the foundation degree.”

The three-year part-time course is specifically for Barratt Group employees. Learning will be a mix of classroom-based, laboratory-based and on-site, and students will attend university in four, one-week blocks.

The initial course will be completed by December 2016 and students will then move onto an 18-month top-up course to obtain their BSc qualification.

Mike Roberts, Managing Director at Barratt North East, said: “This degree is a first for us and for the industry.

“Our site managers are a vital part of our workforce in underpinning the quality and sustainability of the homes we build. They face new challenges in terms of increasingly technical build processes, so we’re investing in our people today for future growth.

“Iain and Darren are already proving to be great assets to the company.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Barratt Homes North East .