Student recruited as trainee manager after work experience success

Brody White has been recruited by Read Construction as a trainee site manager after impressing on work experience while studying at Coleg Menai.

The 18-year-old worked with Read on the college’s new £20m Bangor campus this summer as part of his Level 3 BTEC in Construction and the Built Environment.

He has now been taken on by the North Wales-based company, and said the skills he learned at Coleg Menai have helped him as he lays down the foundations for a career in construction.

Brody said: “I believe I have gained many key skills from my time at college studying construction which helped grow my ambitions of eventually becoming a site manager.

“I am very excited to be a part of Read Construction as a trainee site manager and I believe this is a great opportunity for myself to grow in the construction industry and develop my skills further.”

Brody, from Llandegfan on Anglesey, impressed Read bosses on his work experience placement, with his tasks including attending management meetings, reviewing plans, and carrying out CAT scans, surveys and safety checks.

Project manager Eilir Jones said: “It has been fantastic to welcome Brody back to site as a member of the Read team.

“Whilst on placement, Brody showed great enthusiasm to learn, and he continues to show that same eagerness as a trainee site manager. We are looking forward to seeing Brody develop over the course of the Tŷ Menai scheme and future projects at Read.”

Claire Taylor, programme leader for Level 3 Construction & the Built Environment, said:

“We work with local employers to help provide relevant work experience opportunities for our learners, which in turn helps them to secure their chosen career paths.

“The Level 3 BTEC Construction and the Built Environment course provides an excellent basis for a range of career options such as quantity surveyors, architects, civil engineers, site managers, health and safety officers, buyers, building surveyors, building services engineers, building control officers, planners, CAD technicians, project managers etc, to name a few.

“Our learners are supported to progress with their chosen career paths, whether this means that the next step after Level 3 is higher education, employment or onto higher apprenticeships.”

Read are carrying out the work on the college’s new Tŷ Menai campus in Parc Menai, Bangor, where teaching is due to start from September 2024.

The new campus, backed with £14m from the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme, will relocate Coleg Menai’s current provision from the Ffriddoedd Road and Friars sites in Bangor. You can find more information about the ongoing transformation here.

For information on the range of construction courses available at Grŵp Llandrillo Menai, click here.