Skills academy at Stanhope continues to succeed

Published by DeanW for Moat Homes Ltd in Education and also in Communities

In the last 18 months, the skills academy at Stanhope in Ashford has produced some pretty impressive results. Denne Construction, part of the Chrysalis Consortium which has driven the £150 million regeneration of Stanhope, manages and runs the academy which provides local people with skills, training and apprenticeships.

Since October 2009, 13 school visits and 12 school workshops have taken place, tying in with the school curriculum and broadening the pupils’ understanding of how their surroundings influence their everyday lives. The skills academy has also provided work experience for 12 young people aged between 14 and 16 years old and a further 16 young people aged 17 and over have also received work experience placements via the academy.

Moat has worked with Denne Construction to refer 21 new Project Initiated Apprenticeships, ensuring everything is in place to provide community involvement opportunities and final qualifications, in addition to the academy’s ten ongoing apprenticeships. Candidates have also undertaken 135 CSCS and Health and Safety tests and achieved 78 NVQs.

The Denne Skills Academy for Construction was established in October 2007 and was the first ever accredited centre in the UK and recipient of National Housing Forum Demonstration Project Status. Moat supports Denne by funding the equipment and protective clothing as well as awards for the young people from Stanhope who train or undertake work experience through the academy. Moat’s Regeneration Team, which is based at Stanhope, also makes referrals to the academy. Young people who want to get a taster of a career in construction through work experience, or those who want to kick-start their construction career through an apprenticeship, can speak with Moat’s Regeneration Team to obtain a referral.

Nicholas Fowler, Denne’s Business Improvement Manager,says; “The Stanhope project has given us the opportunity of working with agencies and schools to support young people in the local area. The outstanding results are due to the support which we have received from our trade contractors and the incredible drive from Zoe Dalton who runs the skills centre.”

Pam Millington, Moat’s Area Business Manager for Medway and Stanhope, says; “The Denne Skills Academy for Construction has played a pivotal role in the wider regeneration of Stanhope. It has provided training, education and community involvement opportunities for a range of local people. These outstanding outputs demonstrate its ongoing success and prove the success of strong partnership working like that between Denne Construction and the other members of the Chrysalis Consortium.”

-ends-

About Moat

Moat is a housing association providing affordable homes in thriving communities for people in the South East. For over forty years, Moat has delivered high quality general needs homes for affordable rent, supported accommodation and tenancy support services, and has a strong affordable home ownership offer.

Moat is one of the Homes and Communities Agency’s development partners and is also the government appointed Local HomeBuy Agent in Essex, Kent and Sussex. Employing 420 people, Moat provides excellent customer service to residents of our 20,000 affordable rented and shared ownership homes.

www.moat.co.uk

About Chrysalis

The Chrysalis consortium comprises PFI-focussed Gleeson Capital Solutions, Moat, delivering affordable housing and housing management services and Nationwide Commercial, who are funding the scheme. Nationwide Commercial and Gleeson Regeneration are partners in the successful regeneration project at Grove Village in South Manchester, a £103m eight year programme which was the first substantial local authority housing PFI, with a similar HRA structure to the Ashford PFI.

About Denne

Denne, part of the Leadbitter Group, is a major regional contractor operating throughout London and the South East of England.  Specialising in affordable housing, residential development, regeneration, care, education and commercial sectors, with a construction activity level of more than £100 million, Denne is the largest Kent based contractor.

The Leadbitter Group has four operating regions in the UK:

• South West and Wales Region, based in Bristol, Cardiff and Plymouth
• Central Region, based in Oxford and Coventry
• Southern Region based in Southampton
• Eastern Region based in London and Sittingbourne (Denne)

With operations divided into two businesses, construction and affordable housing, Company turnover approaches £400 million per annum. The Company’s substantial expertise across all building sectors, combined with its proven leadership in the areas of corporate social responsibility, community engagement and environmental preservation, makes the Leadbitter Group a construction partner of choice. For more information, please visit http://www.leadbitter.co.uk.

About ConstructionSkills

ConstructionSkills is the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for the construction industry. It is a partnership between CITB-ConstructionSkills, CIC and CITB Northern Ireland. It is UK-wide and represents the whole industry from professional consultancies to major contractors and SMEs. 

Established as an SSC in 2003, ConstructionSkills is working to deliver a safe, professional and fully qualified construction workforce. All three partners are committed to working together to deliver industry-led skills and training solutions through the Sector Skills Agreement for construction. We work to negotiate the best partnership and funding deals for the construction industry to help raise standards and we develop the skills products and services employers need. 

The construction sector is central to the UK economy, generating over 8% of UK GDP and with a turnover of more than £210bn a year.