Its next raft of apprentices is due to start in September, while another cohort is halfway through a training programme that involves obtaining an NVQ.
This course served as a precursor to subsequent training offered by the company, which was launched fully in 2020. She devised a groundwork training programme in 2017, and with two temporary offices, one at that site in Cinderford and the other in Cardiff, some 23 apprentices started training in 2018.
Having initially trained as a beautician in Cardiff, Bird had spent four years at the family construction business when she saw there was a patch of land adjacent to KM Bell’s main office lying vacant. We take the recruitment headache away from the employer” Natalie King, Accxel “All apprentices that come have guaranteed employment ready when they leave. And, for people who want to come into the construction industry, it opens doors.” We take the recruitment headache away from the employer. This was about putting a marker in the ground and saying ‘we are going to change the face of construction’. King, Accxel’s growth and partnership director, says: “People who come out of FE college or get their one-day Construction Skills Certification Scheme card are not industry-ready. Apprentices who sign up are matched with an employer and should have a job to go to when they qualify. We have range of ages from 22 to 60, and some haven’t been in a classroom since they left school.” Bringing in contractorsĪccxel aims to overhaul the way training is conducted by bringing in contractors. But, because this is for construction by construction people, they feel much more like they belong here. If you tell them to go to college or university, they often won’t go – they feel completely intimidated. “People get into construction because they often know somebody who can give them a job. The simulation is one of several programmes used on courses at Accxel, a Gloucestershire training centre established by two local sisters.Ĭonstruction News visits the Forest of Dean facility to find out how Accxel’s training differs from the norm and about its ambitious plans for capturing the next generation of workers. Behind me, the co-founders of the facility are soaking up my poor attempts at being a plant operator by occasionally breaking into fits of laughter. I am, in fact, in an air-conditioned room escaping the UK’s July heatwave by having a go at a construction simulator. In short, I’m probably fired, and the Health and Safety Executive is going to have a field day. It’s beeping and vibrating, though it might be because I exited the cab without turning the engine off. Tim Clark dons his hard hat to visit a construction training centre that its founders hope will capture the hearts and minds of the next generation