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Building apprentices challenged to build village ahead of education in industry

Contractor Novus has whisked its 18-strong 2019 cohort of apprentices to the Derbyshire countryside to build a model village ahead of their education in the construction industry.
Novus held its Building Success day as part of its wider Apprentice Week at Mount Cook Adventure Centre in Buxton, an eco-friendly venue that Novus helped create in 2016. The annual event brings all of the business’ nationwide apprentices together, giving them an opportunity to meet members of the Seddon family and the wider leadership team.
In addition to the Building Success project, the apprentices will learn about Novus’ core values, its customer service and health and safety standards and have the opportunity to work in the local community to deliver a social value project.
The Building Success day saw a conference room transformed into a live construction site, where the apprentices were tasked with building a modern village consisting of streets and homes. The event was highly interactive with scaffolding, tools, building materials and safety notices provided to create as close to a real live environment as possible.
The teams, consisting of planners, builders and decorators, were supported throughout the day by the Novus operational teams, who will work alongside the apprentices throughout their Apprentice programme.
Sarah Collins, head of people services at Novus, said: “Apprentices have always played a fundamental role in Novus’s success and are one of the key reasons we have such strong teams delivering exceptional work across all of the country.
“Today’s event has provided our apprentices with an opportunity to put their potential skills to the test and has allowed us all to get to know them better in a practical environment. We’re hoping that all of our 2019 apprentices will go on to have long and successful careers with Novus, whether in professional trade roles or progressing to management and leadership positions.
“We’re proud the day proved to be such a success and look forward to following the development of our apprentices over the next few years and beyond.”