What attracts a young person to housebuilding? Every apprentice has their own reasons, and here, George Baird tells what brought him to Home Counties developer Bewley Homes and what he’s loved about the industry in his first two years working in it.
Why did you choose housebuilding as a career?
After leaving full time education at the age of 18, I knew it was time to start a long (and hopefully successful) career. I’ve always had an interest in construction in general but never knew what area of it I wanted to try out. I was aware that housebuilding was a sector of the industry that had been growing and expanding over the previous few years and I felt had the potential to offer long-term prospects. I did my research, asked people in the industry and everything I found gave me more reasons to give it a go.
One aspect of the building industry that appealed to me was the ability to get out and about on a site to be able to witness first-hand the stages and changes that you’re contributing to, being able to see something that was once a flat piece of land but will soon be a place people call home.
What do you hope your prospects will be?
There is the ability to do so much within the housebuilding industry that prospects seem endless and ambitions, limitless. Being such a large industry, there is the possibility to work your way up to a new role, or even to change to a new aspect of building that you’ve never experienced before.
What is your ambition?
My ambition is quite simple – I aim each day to learn new things and further my ability in this ever-changing industry, with the hope I can work my way up the ladder from apprentice to manager and one day run my own sites.
What do you like about working in the sector?
With such a wide range of things to do, there is so much to enjoy within the housebuilding sector. Every day is different for a start. Out on site, you’ll meet and work with a different variety of people and to get the individual tasks and stages completed means you are constantly learning, so you don’t get tired or bored.
At Bewley, we offer a variety of property size and style, from small flats to one-off mansions and so there is never a dull day where something new can’t be learnt. Teamwork and problem solving is regularly called upon.
Above all I enjoy being able to get outside away from the office and computer environment and get hands on with the building, helping to push on with the projects to ensure that they meet the required standard and completion dates.
What advice would you give to someone thinking of applying for an apprenticeship?
I’d strongly recommend anyone looking for a new career to consider the housebuilding industry, even if the idea of the building has never crossed your mind before as there is so much more to it than most people realise. It’s not just an industry of site-based roles, but so many more behind the scenes too, including architects, surveyors, engineers and so on, so it is more than likely that there will be a role within a housebuilder that would appeal to anyone.
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