Seddon’s 14 new apprentices joined group CEO Jonathan Seddon, assistant land buyer Matt Hodkinson, and Ceris Esplen, director of strategy and partnerships at Irwell Valley Homes, for two clean-up days in Sale West as part of their induction week, as the family-owned contractor gives back to the community.
The clean-up took place on Seddon’s under-construction housing development and estate regneration in Sale West, which involves the construction of 79 two-storey properties within an existing housing development and Sale West Community Centre, situated nearby.
Working directly alongside the senior professionals, the community days were used to demonstrate Seddon’s forthcoming approach to social value to its apprentices. Social value is at the core of the Seddon brand, which sees the contractor proactively engaging with the communities that it works with.
Having welcomed the 14 new apprentices into the business, the community days were the first opportunity for them to come together as a team, tasked with cleaning up the area and giving walls and flower beds a fresh lick of paint. Works were undertaken so that the community centre, which does so much for the local area, looks as good as it can and echoes Seddon’s belief that people make places.
While clean-up days like this are crucial to instilling deep-lying community values in the induction of new apprentices at Seddon, they also allowed the new recruits to work directly alongside key members of the senior team. This offers great experiences to the new recruits as they get to spend time with industry experts, receiving some key tips and tricks of the trade.
Nicola Hodkinson, Owner and Director at Seddon, said of the day:
“Clean-up days like this are a great opportunity for our new apprentices to interact with one another, sharing their experiences and building positive new relationships whilst giving back to the local community. It’s been so positive to see the apprentices get stuck in, improving the local area with smiles on their faces. It’s important we, not only as a business but as an industry as a whole, invest in our next generation of workers and we are proud to support these 14 hardworking young apprentices as they progress their careers.”
Ceris Esplen, Director of Strategy and Partnerships at Irwell Valley Homes, said:
“It was great to welcome Seddon’s apprentices to work on Sale West – they’ve done a fantastic job sprucing up the area outside the community centre which is a well-used local hub on the estate, accessed by many residents each week.
“Our regeneration of Sale West is as much about raising aspirations and providing opportunities for local people, as it is about building new homes and improving the physical environment of the estate. The apprentice community days, giving young people at the start of their careers opportunities to experience new things and work alongside more experienced peers, supports this wider purpose of the project and we were delighted to work with Seddon to make this happen.”
Jay Ordish joined Seddon on a Kickstart placement in 2021, working on its Salford Five Sites projects and has now taken a further step forward in his career by becoming a Trainee Site Manager. Ordish said:
“Working with Seddon on the Kickstart has been hugely beneficial. I was given me a job as a six-month introduction to the industry that led to an apprenticeship which I’m very happy with. I want to carry on learning as much as I can. I’d say an apprenticeship is probably the best thing I could do. The combination of experience, education and earning is too good of an opportunity to miss out on.”
The new recruits join the 50 apprentices already employed with Seddon, across all aspects of the business. The contractor was recently ranked in the top 100 apprenticeship employers of 2022 alongside well-known brands including John Lewis Partnership, NatWest Group and ASDA. The rankings celebrate England's outstanding apprenticeship employers, showcasing the listed companies as the country’s leaders for apprenticeships and career development.