Member Article

Young carpenter carves out a career with Keepmoat

John-Mark Sutcliffe from Handsworth is celebrating National Apprenticeship Week after carving out a promising career in carpentry.

Having completed a three year Carpentry Diploma at South Birmingham College is now proving his proficiency with a plane to make the grade with national housing and regeneration specialist Keepmoat.

John-Mark Sutcliffe joined Keepmoat in June 2013 as a site carpentry apprentice, where he works as part of the £20m Horizon development in Birmingham which is regenerating Newtown with more than 250 new, high-quality homes.

The 21-year-old spends four days learning practical skills on site at Newtown and one day a week on a one-year NVQ Level 2 course in site carpentry at South Birmingham College.

He said: “The apprentice course has been fantastic so far – I’m involved with all aspects of the carpentry work on the homes from the structural work right through to the final fixes.

“I’ve also been given the responsibility of being part of Keepmoat’s customer care team, where we go back into properties to iron out any issues that come up once people have moved into their new homes.”

John-Mark is one of 179 Keepmoat apprentices celebrating National Apprenticeship Week in 2014, which runs from Monday, March 3 to Friday, March 7.

John-Mark heard about the apprenticeship through a friend who works for Keepmoat and suggested that John-Mark contact the company about their apprentice course.

John-Mark said: “I heard lots of good things about Keepmoat and contacted the Apprentice Manager Neil Garrity about the course. After a few conversations he agreed to take me on and I’ve not looked back. I think I’ve been doing a pretty good job so far and I have decided that I’d like to stay on with Keepmoat to do my Site Carpentry NVQ Level 3 – if they’ll have me!”

Neil Garrity, Apprentice Manager at Keepmoat in the Midlands, said: “John-Mark is a fantastic example of a youngster who has great enthusiasm and natural talent – and he’s certainly been impressing us over his first year on our apprenticeship course.

“Apprentices are an integral part of Keepmoat’s 3,000-strong workforce as we look to try and build the next generation of construction talent. Investing in apprenticeships is not just about creating short-term jobs but teaching our apprentices skills which will help them to build life-long careers.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Hazel Rycroft .