SOUTH Birmingham College helps businesses build a future. It has become the go-to place for many local and regional businesses when they start thinking about recruiting an apprentice to their organisation. From small local businesses to household names such as National Express, Specsavers and Kier Group, South Birmingham College has been able to provide the advice and support needed.

Kier Partnership Homes, which is part of the Kier integrated construction, social housing and property services group, turned to South Birmingham College when they decided to recruit 14 apprentices as part of a project and they have never looked back since.

Kier, in partnership with Birmingham City Council, wanted to recruit the apprentices for phase 1 of a new housing project in the Egghill area of Birmingham. This was in line with the corporate commitment of the organisation to provide local training and employment opportunity linked to all its social housing projects

They took on the apprentices in a range of construction trades including groundwork, carpentry, plastering, brickwork, plumbing and business administration for an affordable housing project in partnership with Birmingham City Council.

Anne Pounds, Apprenticeship Manager at Kier, said: “It was planned from the outset that apprentices would play a key role in this project; but they exceeded our expectations and were very quickly valuable members of the project team.

“The apprentices were a really good group of young people, in fact I have been working with apprentices for over ten years and this was one of the best groups that I have come across. They all came from very different backgrounds but they forged a very supportive network with one another.