Expert Opinion - Stephen Beech

Young people are crucial to our region’s economy; in fact, they are the lifeblood of it.

At Beech Holdings we take the hiring of apprentices very seriously.

I know all too well myself how hard it is to get your foot on the career ladder and progress. It takes a lot of hard work, willingness to learn from your mistakes as well as an uncanny ability to listen to your mentors.

Beech Holdings will take on six more apprentices within the next six months – with four youngsters already on our payroll. We’re fortunate to be able to do this, given the reputation we have established for ourselves over the past 15 years as one of Manchester’s biggest and best residential property developers. Saying that, though, where we are today is no fluke.

I worked tirelessly to launch Beech in 2001 and even harder to expand from Rusholme into Manchester city centre more recently. Without apprentices we can’t create the continuity and sustainability needed to grow a business that owns £65m of residential housing stock in Greater Manchester, including 17 significant city centre buildings and another 100 properties in the region.

Beech Holdings takes on apprentices in various sections, from architectural design to construction and maintenance. And like each member of our 86-strong workforce, they’re all as important as each other.

The likes of Joel Hughes, who is now 22 and has passed through our apprenticeship scheme, very much waves the Beech flag and knows what a family orientated and equal opportunities focused company we are. And he’s been taught many professional and life skills by our maintenance manager Steve Gee, who is a tough task master.

All this culminates in us having the ability as a company to continue to take unloved, forgotten buildings in prime locations in the city centre and create environmentally sustainable and efficiently designed apartments.

It’s also important to remember that former chancellor George Osborne, announced the government plan to have three million apprentices working for companies across the country by 2020 not long ago.

There’s no doubt in my mind that setting that target was the right thing to do. I also believe it will be achieved as apprentices are becoming more important to businesses of all sizes.

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