While construction work across Nottingham city centre changes the way the city looks, it’s also changing the lives of previously unemployed residents, providing training and job opportunities even during the Covid pandemic.

In the past twelve months, over 500 jobs have been created across the city’s largest development sites, including the new Broadmarsh car park and bus station, Nottingham College City Hub, Unity Square, which will be the new Regional Hub for HMRC, Straits Village (Huntingdon St), The Vantage (Traffic St), York Place on the site of the former York House, Trent Bridge Quays and Nottingham Trent University’s Medical Technologies Innovation Facility, Clifton.

Nottingham Jobs, the city’s one-stop-shop for people looking for work or training, has played a central role in supporting job creation, working with construction companies across the city to recruit suitable candidates for sites which need skilled, local workers.

Councillor Rebecca Langton, Portfolio Holder for Skills, Growth and Economic Development, says; “We’ve said as a council before that cranes in the air means jobs on the ground, and that’s proven the case as we transform sites across the city. The continued economic growth of Nottingham not only depends on the city’s proven ability to secure inward investment and drive development: it also relies on us being able to work with developers to create real job opportunities for residents.

“The central role of Nottingham Jobs is to not only support residents to find work during what has been a very tough time for the city, but to enable people to retrain and find sustainable employment in the future. It is vital to the prosperity of the city, and local area, as it recovers from coronavirus and starts to look to the future, that we have such excellent relationships with incoming construction companies and a proven track record of helping to supply these companies with the people and skills they need.”

Nottingham Jobs, which is delivered in partnership by Nottingham City Council, The Futures Group and Department for Works and Pensions, has also worked with developers to understand their needs and provide construction training for an additional 53 Nottingham city residents, all eager to kickstart their careers in construction, including people like Jamie from Nottingham who is working on the Queen’s Road development for GRAHAM. Louise Seddon explains:

At GRAHAM, we are committed to making a real difference within the communities where we operate. The creation of employment and training opportunities is our key objective and, therefore, we have made our intention clear from the very beginning of the Queens Road scheme. Identifying a local talent pool in Nottingham will enhance our delivery of Queens Road, and we are proud to welcome the new additions to the GRAHAM team.”

Daniel found out about Nottingham Jobs through a friend and like many young people he needed qualifications to be able to work safely and take advantage of job opportunities in construction. He says; 

Coming from where I came from, having a bad life and not really knowing about working and stuff like that, when I started working all my money would go on my kids, on my bills, my car, on surviving basically. Even if Id saved and saved and saved, Id never wouldve been able to save myself for the courses.”

Through Nottingham Jobs, Daniel now has the experience and qualifications to plan out a strong future for himself, including IPAF (International Powered Access Federation) training and slinger training which means he can work with crane operators on site to keep the construction moving along safely.

To find out more about Nottingham Jobs, visit www.nottinghamjobs.com or call 0115 876 4508.