Australian Drilling Attachments

Staff training and development focus contributes to success of North Construction and Building

North Construction
Operating since 1987 North Construction and Building is a medium size construction company that concentrates on work primarily in the health, aged care, education and commercial sectors. With offices at Tuggerah and Broadmeadow, they work mainly in the Central Coast and Hunter Regions with projects ranging from $500K- $30M.
 
The quality of their work has been acknowledged by the many MBA Construction awards they have received each year since 2004 including Commercial Builder of the Year for 2011, 2016 and 2017 by the Newcastle Master Builders Association.
 
One of the major contributors to this continued success has been a strong focus on staff training and development.
To enable North to provide the opportunity for long term careers to their employees, they recognised the need to provide a training environment in synch with the company's strategic direction. The company has long invested into trade apprenticeships for employees destined to be future site managers and has also had a scholar programme with the University of Newcastle since 2011.
 
Under the guidance of a dedicated Apprentice Manager, North has directly engaged 47 carpentry apprentices to date.
With completion rates at 95%, the business provides a powerful learning environment for each apprentice with regular reviews to monitor progress and provide support.
 
Our scholar program is also very structured and targets students who have just completed their first year of Construction Management studies. Through this program we have been able to provide industry experience to 31 students with a further 13 gaining permanent employment at North.
 
Of the current workforce North Construction has 12 apprentice carpenters and 13 building cadets who are surrounded by excellent role models who were once apprentices and cadets and are now site managers, estimators and project managers.
 
Individually North employees have excelled with the following industry awards:
• MBA Australia- National Commercial Apprentice of the Year - achieved twice 2017, 2015 and finalist 2013.
• MBA Newcastle -Commercial Apprentice of the Year – achieved 2017, 2015, 2013, 2008
• Numerous other TAFE, NSW Training and local MBA awards
 
This year North has entered several of apprentices into the MBA Newcastle and the NSW Training Awards – Central Coast, Apprentice of the Year Award and look forward to following their progress. North has also been entered in the NSW Training Awards - Medium Employer of the Year Award for the first time and has been named as one of the final four Employers for NSW with the winner announced in September.

Other Articles from this issue