Horncastle Group are supporting local apprenticeship scheme, Hull Training, by encouraging more businesses in Hull and East Yorkshire to engage with young people and offer work placements for students.

This unique idea sees Hull Training partnering with local businesses and contractors across the region, led by the support of Horncastle, to encourage as many businesses as possible to offer work placements across a range of different sectors from I.T to construction for a minimum of two weeks and in many cases much longer.

On recent projects, Horncastle have taken the decision to only give work to local contractors and suppliers who agree to take on work placements as part of the agreed work contract and project. The aim of this is to give as many young unemployed people as possible a chance to experience time in real working businesses whilst also training and learning new skills.

The scheme is currently being trialled locally in businesses, D&D Decorating and Property Management Services and Pittway, who have both recently offered work experience placements to Hull Training students.

Andrew Horncastle, Director of the Horncastle Group said, “We are dedicated to giving work and projects to local contractors and schemes wherever we can. Working with Hull Training was a great opportunity to ensure we can have a direct benefit on local individuals as it gives them the chance to experience real work and quality training whilst working on our projects and developments under the management of quality local contractors who we work with on a regular basis.

We will endeavour to continue supporting local schemes across other projects we are involved with to create as many work placements for young people as possible” added Andrew.

Local painting and decorating contractors Pittaway and D&D, who both work with Horncastle on a variety of different projects and schemes, are currently trialling the project. D&D had committed to taking on one student for two weeks and this is now complete but they have taken the decision to keep the placement on for longer and are now paying them to work fulltime within the company. Pittaway have recruited six students, some of which have been with them since Christmas and are looking to progress into full time paid work with Pittaway.

Malcolm Daddy, D&D Decorating and Property Management Services said, “We have been really impressed with Hull Training and what they offer. We often need painting and decorating support so this work placement has been ideal for us, but we also often require office and reception support which is also something Hull Training offer so we will definitely look to using them in the future. The majority of the young people who come through Hull Training are of a very high standard and I would recommend them to other local businesses looking to offer work experience placements.”

Graham Pittaway, CE Pittaway & Son Ltd said, “We have worked with Hull Training on a number of different projects in the past and have significantly benefited from the services they offer. Many of the students have worked very well within our teams, and they have developed new skills and progressed quickly whilst working with us and we would look to take on more work experience placements in the future.”

Hull Training is part of Hull City Council and consists of 5 sites across the city offering a wide range of apprenticeship programmes in many different sectors. The organisation works with businesses to recommend a suitable apprentice for them or alternatively businesses can source their own work apprentice and Hull Training will support this process.

Alyson Truelove, Work Place Development Officer at Hull Training said, “It’s fantastic that such a well known business like Horncastle are supporting Hull Training and our apprentices with the opportunity of work placements. We are delighted to be working with them and their contractors. At Hull Training, we can offer apprentices to fill junior vacancies with local business as well as offering training for existing staff to meet both employer and market requirements.”