NHBC opens NHBC Cambridge Training Hub

NHBC has officially opened its latest Training Hub in Cambridge in partnership with the Hill Group.

HRH The Princess Royal declared the hub officially open yesterday (April 25). The purpose-built facility stands next to the Histon Football Club in Impington and can train 80 apprentices all year round. Apprentices can qualify in as little as 14 months, NHBC said.

The hub, initially focused on bricklaying, intends to help create the next generation of skilled housebuilders in the east of England and ease the national skills shortage. It includes classrooms, welfare and catering facilities, offering a realistic outdoor working environment.

At the opening, HRH The Princess Royal met bricklaying apprentices who demonstrated all the stages needed to build a house.

The trainees also stressed the need to entice more people into housebuilding, “with bricklaying being an excellent pathway into a rewarding and well-paid career,” NHBC said.

Darryl Stewart, responsible for NHBC’s apprentice training programme and hubs who hosted HRH The Princess Royal, said: “We are honoured to welcome HRH The Princess Royal to the NHBC Training Hub in Cambridge. Bricklaying is at the heart of housebuilding and a hugely important skill.

“In recent years, housebuilders …