One of Stevenage’s fastest growing principal contractors has pledged to boost its spending on its Early Years’ Talent Academy as part of its 15th anniversary celebrations.
Inco Contracts, which is located at 5 Viewpoint Office Village, is increasing its investment to £150,000 per year to help fight the growing skills gap facing the construction sector.
This will encompass an even more comprehensive programme, offering apprenticeships, on-the-job learning, formal qualifications and one-to-one mentoring from its senior leadership team.
It has been specially designed to attract individuals into the sector and, importantly, retain existing talent who are being tempted into different opportunities. By offering acceleration of their personal development and career path they can clearly see their future at Inco Contracts.
The Early Years’ Talent Academy has been a resounding success so far for the business, with six young people trained from the basics into highly skilled professionals with some already progressing into managerial positions.
“Skills are a growing issue for our sector and our ability to grow. Rather than stand still, we decided to take positive action and create our own training programme,” explained Operations Director Sam Norton, who led the MBO with Managing Director David Cotterill in 2020.
“This has been a fantastic initiative for attracting young talent to join us as a fledgling contractor and we wanted to further renew our commitment to this. Our 15th anniversary felt like the perfect opportunity to extend it by increasing the funding to £150,000.”
He continued: “We provide real project-based experience from day one, setting us apart from our competitors, with a progression pathway aligned with their personal goals. There is also company-funded education at College or University in place to deliver the best all-rounded team member.
“Annual growth is running at around 20% and we can’t completely rely on the existing labour pool if we want to maintain this level of expansion. Growing our own talent is the preferred option to address the skills shortage and I’m delighted that we have given our proven scheme an ‘anniversary boost’.”
Inco Contracts is a specialist in industrial, commercial and education refurbishment schemes across the UK, completing hundreds of projects every year.
These often tend to be turnkey in nature and involve the company working alongside architects, designers, and landlords to bring warehouse, educational establishments and office space back to life or to the required modern-day standards.
Services provided range from industrial roof and cladding, dilapidation schemes and external groundwork packages to building services, M&E installations, strip-outs and demolition, not to mention heritage and conservation work.
Beyond the Early Years’ Talent Academy, the business also offers CPD for all its 55-strong workforce as part of a regular 6-month appraisal scheme.
This clearly defines a personalised action plan to further support their role and provide upskilling opportunities.
Managing Director David Cotterill, added his support: “It’s well documented that the construction industry has been experiencing skills shortage issues for some time, so it’s crucial that we deliver talent from the ground up.
“By doing this we’re helping address the ‘gap’ and create opportunities for people who might otherwise be overlooked by the sector. Our goal is to make construction more accessible, modern and rewarding. In a tight labour market, the companies that invest in its people will be the ones that continue to thrive.”
Finlay Thomas is ten months into a Trainee Contracts and Site Manager position at Inco Contracts in the South.
He has assisted two major sites in the early stages of his progression, learning about estimation, quantity surveying and the day-to-day pressures of client management.
Rob Carter, Regional Director at Inco Contracts in Stevenage, concluded: “There has been a significant industrial skills shortage for some time and, one of the ways we can tackle this, is growing our own staff.
“It means we can take a young person and immerse them in our culture and, in return, we will fund their education and training and ensure they get the best possible mentoring from our experienced professionals.
“Finlay has been a fantastic addition to our team, and we are all looking forward to seeing how far he can go!”
Inco Contracts is planning several special events and announcements through the year to tie in with its 15th anniversary.
For further information, please visit www.incocontracts.co.uk or follow the company across its social media channels.
