The Building Heroes Darlington Skills academy has been sponsored by a three-year partnership to tackle the construction industry’s ongoing skills shortage
The partnership brings together the Building Heroes Education Foundation, Morgan Sindall Construction, and Lovell and will establish the Darlington Skills Academy as a support hub for service leavers and military veterans seeking careers in construction.
The partnership is committed to closing divisions
Tackling issues with social mobility, upskilling, and allowing more access to careers for former military and service personnel, the Building Heroes partnership is also bringing more workers to the construction sector, which historically has had issues with staffing and finding skilled labour.
Darlington College is a centre primarily concerned with technical and vocational skills. It will provide its facilities and tutors to upskill and redeploy workers. It is expected that the academy will support at least 80 learners per year.
John Leary, who leads the Building Heroes initiative for Lovell, said: “It has been a privilege to help nurture our relationship with Building Heroes over the last three years or so, and I am particularly thrilled that just as our year of Gold Sponsorship has come to an end, we are able to now ensure our work with the charity can solidly mature to a wholly new level, through our planned development of an enhanced academy at Darlington College.
“Moreover, with our sister company Morgan Sindall Construction now alongside us, we have a much broader capability and skill-set with which to support the Charity and seek to enhance the Learners’ experience through an exciting programme of site exchanges and other interaction, all of which will clearly and soundly underpin our Group’s pledges under the Armed Forces Covenant and, importantly, help create new opportunities for Service leavers and veterans in Darlington and across the wider North East.”
The government is delivering skill hubs to tackle the skills shortage
Announced in November 2024, the government said that 5,000 new construction apprenticeships were to be created through 32 new skill hubs. This is being funded by industry leaders who have given £140m.
Training will be provided for bricklayers, roofers, plasterers, scaffolders, electricians, carpenters, and more.
At the time, minister for skills, Baroness Jacqui Smith, said: “This government is committed to 1.5 million homes being built across this parliament, while breaking down barriers to opportunity by fixing our broken skills system.
“If we are to meet this ambitious target and fix the foundations of our economy, we need to ensure we have a skilled workforce, and give more apprentices a foot on the career ladder.
“The need to boost our country’s skills is crucial to our mission-driven government, and I am pleased that this initiative will give apprentices skills to seize opportunity.”
