McLaren Construction and Hawkspear Contracts held a Community Day at Broughton Shopping Park helping young ex-offenders start careers in construction with the help of professional boxer Martin Murray.
The day was spent introducing the youngsters to construction jobs and helping them develop CV and interview skills by experts at McLaren and Hawkspears. They were educated about the construction industry and mock CSCS tests were completed before walking on site and looking to apply the knowledge in practice.
Each participant then took the McLaren ‘Spot it, Shout it!’ cards on site, looking to identify any potential hazards. McLaren prodecures, such as full PPE and ‘permits to work’ were discussed and assessed as to why they are in place and risks that they reduce by enforcing them.
The group was joined by professional middleweight boxer and qualified youth worker Martin Murray, who had in depth discussions about his own experiences and the turning points in his life that led him to change. His stories were all extremely motivating and inspiring.
Gary Cramp, Operations Director, McLaren Construction Midlands and North, commented: ‘’As we have continued with the reconfiguration of Broughton Retail Park on behalf of British Land, we carry on ensuring that we are able to relate to local communities. With the support of British Land our site manager Stuart McCulloch came up with the idea of a community day and enlisted the support of his friend Martin Murray, who despite a busy schedule was happy to give his time to support the day. As we continue to deliver projects for British Land within the region, we look forward to the new recruits engaging on our construction sites and wish them all the best for the future. On behalf of McLaren I would like to thank our supply chain partners for their cooperation and Stuart McCulloch for organising the event and last but not least Martin Murray for giving up his valuable time and busy training schedule.’’
The participants of the Community Day have been invited to put everything they learned into good use and apply for positions at Hawkspears, with the successful candidates starting work at Broughton on Monday, 8 August.
