The Apprentice – You’re hired!

Unlike most of the poor apprentice’s who recently bid for the chance to work for Alan Sugar, Countryside Properties is pleased announce that brick laying trainee Grant Nash has been offered full time employment with one of its sub-contractor partners Lee Marley Brickwork Ltd.

Grant, aged 18 from Hendon is the first apprentice to be employed at the former Grahame Park Estate now known as New Hendon Village, a £450m regeneration project comprising 3,000 new mixed tenure homes and community facilities in Barnet, North London. He will start his job with Lee Marley on completion of his bricklaying NVQ this month.

Grant Nash, says: “Working for Countryside Properties has been a great opportunity for me. I’m thrilled that I have been offered full-time employment. I’ve always wanted to work in the building industry and Grahame Park is a really exciting project to be working on. It will make a real difference to the area and I’m proud to be involved with the scheme.”

Countryside Properties is committed to providing employment and training to local people and has been running employment and training schemes since 1993, when it set up its first programme on the Blue House Estate in Basildon. It works closely with its RSL and Local Authority partners through a range of initiatives managed by our Community Development Director, Paul Sweeney.

A key factor in the successful delivery of the company’s employment and training programmes is the partnering agreements it has with the majority of its sub contractors such as Lee Marley, who often directly employ much of the local labour. These long standing arrangements result in the provision of more secure and sustainable job opportunities.

Robin Dunton of Lee Marley comments: ‘’We have an established partnership with Countryside Properties and have been working with them for many years. We actively support all of their Local Labour Initiatives and recognise their importance in helping people of all ages and backgrounds develop a career in the construction industry.

We are delighted that Grant is joining our team full time. He has made excellent progress since he had been working with us at Grahame Park and I am confident that he has a bright future ahead of him.’’

The first of the 3,000 new homes at New Hendon Village will be completed this summer.

For further information on Countryside Properties and its local employment and training initiatives visit Countryside-properties-corporate.com.