As Oscar Anderson celebrates completing his apprenticeship with a distinction, he shares how his time at a major Milton Keynes development has had him combining construction, sustainability and digital skills.
The 21-year-old, from Bedford, is completing a Level 3 Construction Support Technician apprenticeship and his role at Berkeley’s Eastbrook Village places him between the internal and external site management teams.
Berkeley’s approach to apprenticeships focuses on equipping young people with the future-ready skills needed to help create more inclusive and sustainable societies.
Anderson comments: “This definitely resonates with my experience at Berkeley. This focus on modernised construction is characteristic of what we call ‘the Berkeley way’, which aims to bring together future skills, climate action and nature as part of an approach to creating places that stand the test of time.
“Eastbrook Village is a perfect example of this strategy. There’s a real focus on placemaking here, whether that’s on blending our architecture with the surrounding natural landscape, ensuring we exceed our biodiversity goals, or incorporating green and blue spaces across the development.
“I think a lot of people see housing developments as cookie-cut templates, so it’s brilliant to be able to participate in a vision for something different.
“At 21, when people of my generation know how difficult it can be to find a home, it feels positive to be contributing to a new community and helping provide homes for the future. Going from the pre-construction stages to seeing the first phase come to life is a real privilege!”
Anderson’s responsibilities include helping prepare Eastbrook Village for environmental audits and ensuring sustainability information is recorded accurately. With the development set in the countryside on the eastern edge of Milton Keynes, Oscar’s work involves understanding how construction must account for waterways, biodiversity, native and invasive species and other environmental risks.
He continues: “One of the coolest things is seeing how these future skills complement one another. For example, we can track carbon emissions and perform waste auditing using AI and digital systems, which really speeds things up while adding a different perspective to our manual processes.
“I’ve learnt so much since I started; I’ve developed skills in reading and scaling drawings, knowledge of health and safety, and experience in how to accurately gather evidence for energy performance assessments.
“What I’ve especially loved about the apprenticeship so far is that I’m getting such a wide range of experience. I’ve been on secondments to other Berkeley developments, including the high-rise Glasswater Locks development in Birmingham, which offered me a totally different experience with a totally different building type.”
An apprenticeship appealed to Anderson because it offered a hands-on route into an industry he already knew through family members and earlier work in construction recruitment.
He adds: “I have always been more hands-on and practical, so an apprenticeship really appealed to me. You are learning while being involved in the work, and the college course and the experience on site complement each other. A lot of the AI and sustainability information can seem daunting at first, but getting to put that knowledge to the test out in the field helps it become familiar very rapidly.”
Delivered in partnership with Milton Keynes City Council and Homes England, Eastbrook Village will bring more than 4,600 homes to approximately 950 acres. The plans also include a 160-acre country park, four schools, a Community and Health Hub, local amenities, sports facilities and major infrastructure improvements.
Stephen Kirwan, managing director at Berkeley, said: “Delivering the homes and neighbourhoods the country needs means combining the fundamentals of safe, high-quality construction with the skills to use new technology while reducing environmental impact and boosting biodiversity.
“Oscar’s work at Eastbrook Village is giving him meaningful experience on a live development while helping us create a new community designed to stand the test of time.”
For young people considering an apprenticeship, Anderson’s advice is simple: “Get stuck right in. You do not know until you try, and you are there to learn. There is no such thing as a stupid question, and you can arrive as a complete beginner. The industry needs new skills, and at Berkeley there are people around you who want to mentor and encourage you.”
