Building School
After 2 years, research planning and construction Craig developed the largest independent construction training academy in the North-West opening its doors in September 2005 to its first 152 students the facility was formally opened by Cherie Blair QC in January 2006 along with a whole host of celebrities and dignitaries including; Ricky Tomlinson, Syd Little, Louis Emerick, Mark Moraghan, Scott Wright, Dean Gaffney, John Aldridge, Tony Barton, Jake Robinson, Dean Sullivan, the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, local MP´s and the Merseyside LSC Chief Executive
The 25,000 sq ft facility was designed and built by Craig and his team to simulate a real construction site with 88 solid individual rooms for various types of wet trades, 48 carpentry bench workstations and a 9,000 sq ft open plan workshop for brickwork - large enough to build several entire houses. Along with the practical workshop areas the academy also consists of 3 large fully equipped I.T classrooms, various staff offices, administration and reception areas.
The centre received its own accreditation enabling it to run a variety of work based learning and entry to employment courses and has been commended by the CITB as providing one of the largest and best training environments in the country.
Within the first 6 months of running a £1 million pound contract awarded by the Learning and Skills Council, Craig and his team of 22 staff successfully guided over a 100 learners into full time employment or work placements and gained over 100 positive press articles in publications like The Guardian, The Times and Construction News highlighting the nation´s shortfall of skilled tradesmen in the construction industry and encouraging other developers to support training.
After a year´s successful trading and having achieved full centre accreditation awarded by the Construction Industry Training Board, Craig felt he took the academy as far as he could and transferred ownership to Carter and Carter Group Plc, the countries largest independent training provider.
Today the centre continues to expand now with a capacity to train over 500 students on a daily basis; the centre has now been expanded from 25,000sq ft to over 100,000 sq ft teaching building and mechanical trades, delivering a variety of short and long term courses.
Craig continues to be actively involved, assisting with publicity and promoting employer engagement.
