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News Release from: National Construction College | Subject: CA Blackwell (Contracts) apprentices
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 14 November 2006
National Construction College: case
study
CA Blackwell (Contracts) have been using the NCC to train apprentices since 2000, with 45 apprentices having now completed their training.
CA Blackwell (Contracts) was founded 50 years ago as an earth moving contractor, up until the mid-80's it primarily worked on the UK's motorways by which time the highway network was in place The company then moved into mainstream civil engineering and remediation work, in addition to earth moving contracting, which is still at the core of its business today
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 27 Jul 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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The company operates nationally and is the largest independent earthmoving contractor in the UK, with more than 200 pieces of heavy earth moving equipment in its fleet and more than 400 members of staff.
With its head office near Colchester it is ideally placed for the construction developments in the Thames Gateway.
One such example is the Land Formation project at Ebbsfleet Valley; a comprehensive regeneration programme being brought forward by Land Securities.
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This mixed-use development will incorporate a combination of commercial and retail facilities with new homes.
Currently in phase one, the land formation works commenced in mid-2005 and are planned to complete in Spring 2007.
Blackwell is leading this stage and is responsible for moving the five million cubic metres of earth on the site to create a suitable development platform.
During the peak 2006 season, Blackwell had 75 staff working on this project with two motor scraper and six 65 tonne excavator teams comprising more than 60 pieces of equipment on the site.
The staff included four former National Construction College (NCC) trainees, Anthony Colton, Alex Clarke, Stuart Edwards and Rhys Griffiths, who undertook apprenticeships with Blackwell and the NCC in Bircham Newton and are now dump truck, tractor dozer or motor scraper operators.
Blackwell project director for the Ebbsfleet Valley Land Formation, Niall Fraser, said: "This is a great project for us all to be involved with especially for the former NCC trainees who are at the start of their career in the industry".
"This project gives them experience of working on a large scale and interesting development".
"At the height of the summer we were moving more than 200,000 cubic metres of soil per week".
"Working with a wide range of heavy plant material, they have plenty of opportunity to put to practice what they have learnt during their training and develop their skills further".
"There is a big skills shortage in the industry with the latest figures from the Construction Skills Network Report 2006 showing that 87,000 new recruits are needed to join the industry each year between now and 2010.
With the plant sector alone needing more than 2,000 new recruits nationally each year".
"We have been using the NCC to train apprentices since 2000, with 45 apprentices having now completed their training with us".
"We have always thought that the training provided by the NCC is of an extremely high standard and many of the apprentices' rate of progression has been both astounding and encouraging".
"We are pleased with the relationship we have established with the college and plan to use the NCC to train our apprentices for the foreseeable future.".
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