Training

The Company encourages good industrial training practices and operates a formal apprenticeship scheme. The business also has established procedures for identifying and providing the training needs of employees who may receive further education and training when new developments, skills or techniques are introduced.

Houlton is proud of its long term commitment to training its workforce and encouraging training with its sub-contractors and recent achievements include:

CITB Platinum Standard Certificate achieved for minimum 90% employees accredited with Construction Skills Certificate Scheme.

Apprentices – Typically 2-3 new apprentices start with us each year and 8-10 apprentices are undergoing training at any one time. Our first indentured apprentice was Thomas Bishop, bricklayer and plasterer, who started a 5 year apprenticeship in November 1879 and then went onto serve with the company for 57 years! Our 350th apprentice Josh Hunter, who started in 2014, was named the UK's Best Bricklayer at The Guild of Bricklayers Competition and then won a gold medal at the WorldSkills UK finals before going on to represent Team UK at the WorldSkills European Competition 2016 in Gothenburg, Sweden. Josh was subsequently selected to represent Team UK at the WorldSkills World Competition at Abu Dhabi 2017 - an amazing journey for one of our apprentices that shows hard work and study is rewarded.

We are also pleased to engage with local students from local schools and colleges to promote awareness of the building process and the career opportunities within the industry. Including presentations and talks both on site and in the classroom.

We are delighted to further enhance the Houlton family each year to help ensure we maintain our exceptionally high standards as we continue to grow as a business. Graduates, trainees and apprentices are welcomed to the business, and ensuring we have the very best candidates joining Houlton is of paramount importance to maintain the standards we have set over the previous many years.