Interviews

When experienced kitchen fitter Lewis Steinborn first contacted us last summer, he was working with his dad, had no qualifications and was worried about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on his immediate future.

When Luke Wainwright first enquired with us about doing a plastering NVQ in 2019, he was vexed that he wasn’t on the same pay rate as other plasterers at the firm where he worked. Despite diving head first into the plastering trade when he left school at 16 and then working full-time for five years, Luke was earning less than the going rate.

The last time Wayne Swinbourne completed a bricklaying qualification, Margaret Thatcher was prime minister, Aston Villa were European champions and Larry Holmes was the best heavyweight in the world.

One of the latest construction industry workers to benefit from our government-funded NVQ assessment provision is Darren German, a hard surface repair technician from Manchester. He works on various sites across the region repairing and restoring a range of surfaces from worktops and window frames to porcelain tiles and UPVC doors.

We dragged Jess away from her desk and into the boardroom for a quick chat about cobras, bingo, hot air balloon rides over Maasai Mara, and the accidental demolition of private property.

JD: THE EXIT INTERVIEW If you’ve worked in construction training in Manchester in the last 20 years, chances are you’ll have crossed paths with John Dearden. John recently announced his retirement after two decades as an apprenticeship tutor and NVQ assessor. We couldn’t let the occasion slip by unnoticed so, instead of a Rolex timepiece,

MONUMENTAL MOMENT FOR FARMERS BRONZE RESTORATION Monumental Moment for Farmers Bronze Restoration: NVQ Funding Helps 30-Year-Old Family-Run Restoration Business Whilst Farmers Bronze Restoration may not be as old as some of the monuments they help to preserve, they’re a family business with a proud tradition. Started in the 1980s with ‘the legendary Wally Farmer at

MIDLAND LEAD INTERVIEW Leading the Way For Tomorrow’s Roofers Since launching DMR Roofing Academy in late 2018, we’ve received a lot of support from the UK roofing industry. One of our biggest allies is Derbyshire-based lead manufacturer, Midland Lead. We caught up with their Business Development Manager for Export, Dave Woolley, to find out more about

FUNDED NVQ IN SITE CARPENTRY FOR HYDE-BASED JOINER, CRAIG When Craig Ennis first left school in the mid 1990’s, he readily admits that he hadn’t given much thought to his career plans. “I went from dead-end job to dead-end job on a low wage, washing cars and things like that. Eventually I realised I needed

CAREER-BOOST FOR DUANE WITH NVQ FUNDING Self-employed dry liner, Duane Mannion, is the very definition of a construction man who learned the game on the job after leaving school. But it wasn’t until recently that he accessed NVQ funding to gain his first ever qualification. The 39 year old left school at 16 and admits