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Introduction

Sandwood Design & Build Ltd. Is a medium sized main contractor operating in the Greater London area specialising in Social Housing, new build and refurbishment. The current Demonstration Project with The Housing Forum has been successfully running since March 2008, displaying Sandwood's proactive approach and full commitment to all aspects of training and development for its staff.

This report is an update on the previous report in January 2009 and includes information on progress, achievements, research and future initiatives.

Teaching/Mentoring

Sandwood continue their successful relationship with Barking college and provide 3 members of their staff to lecture on a part-time basis each working 1 day a week. The Construction Director teaching Management Modules on a CIOB approved Site Supervisors course, a Project Manager teaching bricklaying and the Mechanical Manager assessing Plumbing NVQs. Sandwood's previous involvement with the College of West London - 'Bringing Women into Construction' - has now ended as the college has changed the relevant courses.

Apprentices/Staff Training

As part of their ongoing commitment to training and development, Sandwood are planning to take on 2 new carpentry apprentices in September 2009. This is a reduction on previous years where a maximum number of 4 apprenticeships were sustainable. However, the recruitment of new apprentices within the current economic climate and downturn within the construction industry in particular, has to be carefully considered. The perception of Painters and Decorators as credible trades within the industry also continues to provide a challenge in the recruitment of apprentices.

There are currently 7 apprentices at varying stages of development in the following trades:

Carpentry - 2 apprentices have completed level 2 NVQs and 2 have completed level 1
Bricklaying - 2 apprentices have completed their level 3 NVQ
Plumbing - 1 apprentice has completed a NVQ level 1

Sandwood also have 1 employee who has completed his Master Plumber qualification.

Sandwood also have 1 Site Manager currently undertaking the second year of his Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) course and 2 Site Managers in their first year of the course.

Richard Garland, co-owner, Finance Director and main contact for this Demonstration Project, has also recently completed his MCIOB and his colleague, Sara Richman has recently completed her ICIOB

In addition to the 3 members of staff currently trained as Code for Sustainable Homes Assessors and another member of staff trained as a SAP Assessor, Richard Garland and Sara Richman have recently completed the BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) Accredited Professional course with the BRE. This will help in the pre-construction, on-site and post construction advice and support given to clients as part of 'Sandwood Environmental', Sandwood's Sustainability Department who continue to work with Green Register (training and networking organisation dedicated to sustainable building practices).

Retention rates of apprentices are good given the current economic climate. Out of a total of 10 since the Demonstration Project's inception 5 have been placed in full time employment within the company and only 1 apprentice has failed to complete.

Local Labour in Construction

Sandwood continue to struggle with this initiative due to their business model and directly employed workforce rather than sub-contractors. The lack of long-term contracts and the initiative's inflexibility for companies such as Sandwood, make it difficult to implement. Sandwood do, however, have 1 carpenter from the Local Labour in Construction (LLiC) who they have retained.

BME/Female

Sandwood still try to recruit from the BME community and female demographic. One of the carpentry apprentices is female and there is a possibility that another female painter and decorator, who left the company after she completed her apprenticeship, may soon be re-employed, but this will depend on workload. One of the carpentry apprentices is of BME origin and Sandwood currently employs 7 people of BME origin in total.

Knowledge Transfer Partnership

In April 2009 Sandwood recruited Basant Mertia, who works in conjunction with Loughborough University, to research and develop the area of LEAN Construction. The project will run until October 2011 and he is currently looking at construction on Chiswick War Memorial Homes -Phase 2 with a report due on his findings in February 2010. It is the intention that the knowledge gained will enable new systems to be implemented into Sandwood's current procedures to eliminate waste and maximise value. He is also completing a study on a mini project simultaneously - 'Optimising Finishing Work Sequence' - which is due for completion at the end of November 2009. It is envisaged that the knowledge gained from this research will help to minimise the total number of entries into a property that are made by each trade, again eliminating waste and generating maximum value.

Economic Climate

Sandwood continues to experience a return of aggressive commercial behaviour and lowest price tendering when submitting bids for work. However, Sandwood anticipate that the findings and recommendations from the LEAN Construction research will increase overall efficiency and help steer them through the current economic down turn.

Employee Volunteering Scheme

As part of this scheme staff can request financial support from Sandwood, up to a maximum of £500 a year, to match what they have raised in sponsorship for a charity of their choice.
One member of staff raised £400 in sponsorship for a 10 kilometre run for the Peter Rigby Trust, a charity for Cerebral Palsy and another member of staff raised £500 for a sponsored bike ride for the British Heart Foundation. The £900 was matched by Sandwood making a grand total of £1800 donated to charity. Sandwood also sponsored a member of staff, who manages his local youth football team, to take the team to the San Siro stadium in Italy, home of AC Milan and Inter Milan.