The rewarding route of becoming an apprentice

By Paul Dodsworth, Regional Managing Director, Wates Construction North

?I hated every moment of school. I’m certainly not one of those people who says that it was the best days of their life. I didn’t get an O-Level, I was always better with a spirit level.

I had no idea what to do or what I wanted to be, some of my friends went onto Youth Training Schemes (YTS) but that wasn’t for me. Fortunately, my dad encouraged me to write letters everywhere. In those days every letter had to be handwritten but my dad just said, “son, you write it, and I’ll put a stamp on it.”

I wrote what must have been a hundred letters, something I’ve still got in a little box at home. I applied for so many jobs I thought it would never happen, but finally persistence paid off and I managed to get a construction apprenticeship.

My dad was an accountant and never really wanted me to go into construction. It is the same challenge that a lot of young people have when choosing this industry, they have to convince their parents that construction can provide a rewarding job.

The fact is, that you can be anything you want to be in this sector, there are a whole plethora of jobs. If you don’t want to pull on a pair of boots in the mud, the muck and the bullets, you can be an architect, an engineer, you could work in IT or marketing and rarely visit a construction site.

This is part of the image problem we are trying hard to tackle. There is a lack of realisation amongst children when they are making crucial life decisions at school, that there are very well paid jobs in construction, where you can build a fantastic career. The pandemic has also made the industry more flexible around working hours and we do so much now to ensure that mental health and wellbeing are primary considerations, and that people really enjoy their work.

When I was at school age, I didn’t think there was anything out there for me, but my story is testament to the opportunities construction can provide. When I first started on-site, my old boss said to me, “Paul, what do you want to be?” and I replied that I was happy being a bricklayer. He looked at me and said, “Wrong answer. I’m putting you on a management training programme.”

I went to college as part of that and absolutely loved it. They treated me like an adult and made me realise how important my education was. I re-sat my Maths and English at night school.

I was put on-site as a foreman bricklayer, in charge of the same people who had trained me. It was difficult as a young 23-year-old man to tell people who were in their 50s and 60s and had been in the industry for years how to do their job, but I listened to their opinions and was careful how I asked them to do things and they respected that.

It shows that people in the industry will recognise your potential, even if you don’t recognise it yourself. One of the proudest things for me about working for Wates is the commitment we have to training our workforce. We always make sure that we are looking at everyone on-site, to see how we can help them advance and give them the right skills and qualifications.

I am a big advocate of the apprentice training scheme and I actively encourage our supply chain to play their part in it. I also make a point of going several times a year to different schools to talk about how I came into the industry and the opportunities there are.

Managing on-site can be a challenge. It takes a particular set of skills to motivate people on a damp, dark Monday morning. You need to be able to speak to them in a certain way to make sure they get the job done right and then spin on your heels and talk to an architect or a client.

Coming through the apprentice route is an excellent way to develop these communication skills. It helps you to understand what makes people tick. You’ve started at the bottom, you’ve done some of their jobs and you understand what it’s like to be in their position. You can say things that don't offend anybody and will make people smile, but ensures they do what you really want them to do.?

I will always be passionate about attracting talent into the industry through this route and I push hard on it in my role as Regional MD. I know how much unrecognised talent is out there because I’ve been in their shoes, I know what it’s like to feel like school isn’t giving you anything. I would never want anyone in that situation to feel that everyone is giving up on them, because I also know from personal experience how much opportunity there is if they choose construction.?