A principal contractor has pledged to boost its spending on its Early Years’ Talent Academy as part of its 15th anniversary celebrations.
Inco Contracts, which has offices in St Mellons Business Park in Cardiff, is increasing its investment to £150,000 per year to help fight the growing skills gap facing the construction sector.
This will encompass an even more comprehensive programme, offering apprenticeships, on-the-job learning, formal qualifications and one-to-one mentoring from its senior leadership team.
It has been specially designed to attract individuals into the sector and retain existing talent who are being tempted into different opportunities.
The firm said that six young people had already been trained from the basics into highly skilled professionals with some already progressing into managerial positions.
“Skills are a growing issue for our sector and our ability to grow. Rather than stand still, we decided to take positive action and create our own training programme,” said Operations Director Sam Norton, who led a management buyout with Managing Director David Cotterill in 2020.
“This has been a fantastic initiative for attracting young talent to join us as a fledgling contractor and we wanted to further renew our commitment to this. Our 15th anniversary felt like the perfect opportunity to extend it by increasing the funding to £150,000.
“We provide real project-based experience from day one, setting us apart from our competitors, with a progression pathway aligned with their personal goals. There is also company-funded education at college or university in place to deliver the best all-rounded team member.
“Annual growth is running at around 20% and we can’t completely rely on the existing labour pool if we want to maintain this level of expansion. Growing our own talent is the preferred option to address the skills shortage and I’m delighted that we have given our proven scheme an ‘anniversary boost’.”
Inco Contracts is a specialist in industrial, commercial and education refurbishment schemes across the UK, completing hundreds of projects every year.
These often tend to be turnkey in nature and involve the company working alongside architects, designers, and landlords to bring warehouse, educational establishments and office space back to life or to the required modern-day standards.
Services provided range from industrial roof and cladding, dilapidation schemes and external groundwork packages to building services, M&E installations, strip-outs and demolition, as well as heritage and conservation work.
Beyond the Early Years’ Talent Academy, the business also offers CPD for all its workforce as part of a regular six-month appraisal scheme.
Managing Director David Cotterill said:
“It’s well documented that the construction industry has been experiencing skills shortage issues for some time, so it’s crucial that we deliver talent from the ground up.
“By doing this we're helping address the ‘gap’ and create opportunities for people who might otherwise be overlooked by the sector. Our goal is to make construction more accessible, modern and rewarding. In a tight labour market, the companies that invest in its people will be the ones that continue to thrive.”
Inco Contracts’ Cardiff office is looking to treble the size of its workforce over the next 12 months, with another Assistant Contracts Manager and a Graduate Contracts Manager set to join as part of the expansion plans.
The latter will arrive from sixth form or college and will be supported by the University of South Wales to complete their NVQ, before moving on to an HNC.
Adam Bidhendy, Regional Director, said:
“There are so many opportunities for us in Wales and the South West but our biggest challenge is finding the right team members. That’s why we’re ramping up how we develop our own people and giving individuals the opportunity to retrain with us if they want a change of career.
“Andrew Cornwall, who joined us in January, is a perfect example. The former policeman decided he wanted to do something different and we’re taking him through his education and training all the way to a contracts manager position. He’s really excelling and gets the ‘Inco’ culture.”
