Social Value Report 2020-2021

KICKSTART

APPRENTICE GRADUATIONS

Our apprenticeship graduation at FM Conway is one of the highlights of our year and we were not going to let COVID-19 stop this year’s celebration! Over 80 people from across the business joined our virtual celebration and heard from Adam Green, our CEO, on the ongoing importance we attach to nurturing young talent. The results speak for themselves as we have retained 50 of the 65 apprentices that we have recruited over the last five years, a retention rate of approaching 80%. The whole business has been delighted with the quality of the apprentices we have attracted and this year’s roll of honour, once again, reflects the best of the best.

FM Conway is proud to support the government’s Kickstart Scheme, helping to create job placements for 16 to 24-year-olds who are at risk of long-term unemployment. From over 100 applications, we were delighted to see 17 young people start on the scheme with us in January across multiple functions of the business.

The overall impact of the scheme has been very positive, and many of our Kickstart students have remained with us to become apprentices or full-time employees.

We were delighted that our first recruitment process was successful and attracted applicants from the Female (60%), BAME (40%), and Disabled (20%) communities.

It is also important that our awards recognise the great role our people play in developing and training the next wave of industry talent.

Each ‘Kickstarter’ has a peer mentor from the business and, based on the success of our first intake, we are already actively recruiting a further 43 Kickstart students to bring the total number to 60 as part of our 60th year celebrations. In a recent survey, 100% of our Kickstart students declared they would never have considered a career in our industry prior to participating in the scheme. We are, therefore, proud to have introduced this new cohort to the world of construction and look forward to seeing the contributions they make to both our business and the industry at large.

Our Award Winners:

Apprentice of the Year

Naim Suleiman

Academic Excellence

Maggie Taylor

Gus Smith Award for Dedication and Loyalty

Louise Chenery

Enthusiasm to Succeed

Frankie McKenna

Apprentice Ambassador

Vickie Bathe

Mentor of the Year

Jason Critchell

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