National Apprenticeship Week: Telford-based housing association set to take on new apprentice roles following merger
The Chief Executive of a Shropshire housing association says the group will be creating new apprentice roles following a merger earlier this year.
Housing Plus Group boss and former building-site apprentice Wayne Gethings was talking up the value of training schemes during National Apprenticeship Week.
The group says more than 100 of its employees are currently apprentices, in everything from traditional trades such as plumbers and electricians to business administration, finance and leadership.
In January, a long anticipated tie-up between Staffordshire-based Housing Plus Group and The Wrekin Housing Group was completed, creating one of the largest social housing providers in the West Midlands.
The new organisation has around 33,000 homes across Shropshire, Staffordshire and Telford & Wrekin, and says it plans to invest around £55 million in its housing stock over the next five years.
“Investing in apprentices is critical to the lifeblood of Housing Plus Group," said Mr Gethings.
"We cannot be left without that succession of people coming through with the range of skills we need.”
Mr Gethings began his career as an apprentice on a building site nearly 40 years ago, and is now at the helm of an organisation with almost 2,000 employees.
“My father was a builder, he worked for a big well-known construction company in the Midlands at the time. He told me, ‘If you’re living here, you’ve got to come and work with me on the building sites’.
“I thought, if I’m going to go and work on the building sites, how do I make sure that I’m doing something that’s going to pay me well and is going to give me something that I can get motivated by?
“At the time I got into an apprenticeship there was a massive shortage of plumbers and gas fitters. They had just started fitting central heating with gas boilers when I was on the sites, and there was a lack of people who understood how to do that.”
The new group will also be looking for new apprentices in the coming months.
Mr Gethings added: “Apprentices bring in a different dimension. They have decided at some point in their life that they want to learn a new skill, so they’re coming in with a different background and lived experience that helps the organisation to think differently."
