Urban&Civic have launched an innovative partnership with Constructed Pathways to support the delivery of its ambitious jobs and skills agenda in Cambridgeshire.
The move comes on the back of the 3 Cambridgeshire projects securing National Skills Academy for Construction status working with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB).
The status means each phase and contract within the rollout of the developments, will include mandated KPIs for U&C and its housebuilder and contractor partners to deliver. Constructed Pathways will be part of creating a jobs and skills ecosystem, with local partners which provides short, mid and long term benefits from these commitments to local communities.
Instead of housebuilders and contractors being given targets they may struggle to deliver, or deliver one off initiatives, a wider system of projects and support will be set up greater than the sum of its parts: with more meaningful and longer term initiatives, which will gather pace and scale over the 20 years delivery roll-out of the developments.
Key to the scheme is the extensive partnerships being developed with local authorities, local job centres, colleges, and local community groups and charities supporting them: these enable local people and target groups to secure the opportunities created.
Urban&Civic has also donated a former maintenance shed at Waterbeach to be a Skills Hub. The building is close to the offices gifted to Constructed Pathways and at the heart of the first phase of development.
At the heart of the project, is the very real skills shortages faced by industry, the challenges smaller subcontractors face training people while delivering the job in hand, and supporting their needs for skilled site ready people. Constructed Pathways have worked with Urban&Civic to design the approach to deliver this for businesses, in a way which also drives transformational benefits for local people and communities.
This course is changing my life – it’s made me realise that I can get a trade to better my life and support my kids. I find bricklaying therapeutic and I’m definitely looking for a career in this. It’s made me feel that I’m worth something and has given me a new lease of life.
Lisa,
one of the learners on the first course
We’re delighted with how well the course has gone. It has taken individuals that have never laid a brick before to building a cavity wall, with some of our outstanding candidates able to do more complex features like lintelled openings. Learners have not only grown in skills but have also developed a greater sense of pride, purpose and resilience.
Feedback from partners during the course is helping further develop the initiative to meet industry needs and we would like to thank ECL Civil Engineering for providing the materials and tools for the bricklaying course and NHBC for assisting us with the training syllabus.
Dan Edwards,
Director of Constructed Pathways
With skills shortages in the industry and strategic developments being delivered at Waterbeach, Wintringham and Alconbury Weald – and across the county over the next twenty years – it is important for us to work with our housebuilders and contractors to identify skills gaps and support training so local people can access jobs and develop careers in construction and the built environment.
We’ve established each of these developments as a National Skills Academy for Construction – with a framework supporting contractors and housebuilders to support opportunities for local people, and training courses and skills hubs to support that – and Constructed Pathways is our delivery partner making it all come to life. We are delighted the Bricklaying Skills pilot has had such positive results and are looking forward to the next steps in embedding this and other intensive courses to support both opportunities for local people and support to the industry to grow.
Rebecca Britton,
Regional Director for Waterbeach masterdeveloper Urban&Civic
Sodexo is committed to creating opportunities for prisoners to develop skills and knowledge that will enable them to secure employment when they are released, significantly reducing their risk of reoffending. We are delighted to partner with Constructed Pathways and the wider consortium on this transformative initiative that will change the lives of the participants. We welcome such innovation, both as direct partnerships and through Sodexo’s Starting Fresh programme, maximising the opportunities available to support individuals for a positive future.
Ralph Lubkowski,
Director of HMP Peterborough
Pilot Schemes
The scheme has started with a series of pilots to test the approach and develop connections. The pilots have focussed on the industry priority of bricklaying, and includes a scheme with female prisoners at HMP Peterborough and a bricklaying skills bootcamp at the Waterbeach development targeting local people.
The scheme has been developed with bricklaying companies, and supported with funding and in kind contributions of equipment, materials and staff engagement by contractors and housebuilders across the Urban&Civic schemes, including Breheny and ECL Engineering, David Wilson Homes and Stonebond.
In the six-week intensive Bricklaying Skills Bootcamp held at Waterbeach Skills Hub, six learners successfully completed the course and have now progressed to work experience opportunities, paid work or are entering interview/trial processes. The programme teaches basic bricklaying techniques such as cavity and solid wall construction, and includes self-employment education sessions delivered by Inspire2Ignite. Successful participants are supported to secure a CSCS card that reflects their recently acquired skills and are ready to start working on a construction site. During the course they met bricklaying companies who were able to see their work and potential. The CITB scheme ensures the supply chain provides work placements and work experience opportunities – funded by local partners – meaning they can see what someone is like before (hopefully) offering them a role.
Constructed Pathways team and partners within the scheme will continue to provide advice and support to connect everyone who takes part in the training with potential opportunities until they secure a job.
All learners that took part in the pilot scheme live in Cambridgeshire and were signposted to the course from the Department of Work and Pensions, FutureIN, Trac and charity partners Abbey People and Inspire 2 Ignite (I2I).
The HMP Peterborough pilot, saw a training centre created in the Prison, with support from the U&C supply chain, enabling female prisoners the chance to gain skills and qualifications ahead of their planned release. The scheme successfully saw 11 women complete the training, with 3 currently released and being supported to secure permanent roles, of which 2 are already succeeding in placements with companies.
The pilot is being continued and aims to create a sustainable pathway to employment, providing trade-specific training and education to individuals while they are in prison. This, in turn, will create a flow of trained, employment-ready construction workers who are ready to start a new job.
The Skills Hub brickwork training is being continued with additional training course developed for carpentry and groundworks. Funding has now been secured from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority for a new mobile Construction Skills hub at Urban&Civic’s St Neots development, which will launch in Spring 2026.