Clever Clogs

Well done to Paul Cabo who achieved a 2:1 BSc Commercial Management and Quantity Surveying from The University of Central Lancashire.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Neil Davies who passed his P4 exam (Organisational Management and Information Systems) with 64%! Neil is combining his studies with 3 years practical experience with the company and will eventually gain membership to The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. 1 down, 6 to go!!

CSCS Accreditation Centres

Both Longridge and Bolton offices have been passed as Accreditation centres for the CSCS Health and Safety Test. This means that rather than sending employees to a test centre we can test internally. Five Managers spent a day at Manchester to be trained to invigilate the test.

This will enable us to maintain a fully CSCS compliant workforce more easily. More than 168 members of staff will be sitting their test between now and Christmas and the whole workforce will be CSCS compliant by Easter.

Training Day

Our fourth company training day will be held on Friday 22nd December this year. This year will see a record 179 people attending training at four sites. Staff will be undertaking the CSCS test, be trained in mobile scaffold erection, customer care, environmental issues, and safe use of power tools.

One difference this year is that we have invited staff from our partners in the Fusion 21 partnership to attend after they expressed an interest.

Back to School

As part of our training plan we highlighted the CITB approved “Site Management Safety Training Scheme” as an essential requirement for our Site Agents to enable them to become fully conversant with all aspects of health and safety, legislation and working methods. The course involves them attending one day a week for six weeks. A total of 38 people went back to the classroom attending the course this Autumn and the feedback has been extremely positive from the attendees.

Who's wearing the trousers.....

Rachel Steele on Site

Not content with outnumbering the men at the head office we are now seeing an increase in ladies in construction roles. In the past eighteen months we have recruited three Quantity Surveyors, Rachel Steele, Chloe Reed, and Clare Ashworth, one Contracts Co-ordinator, Joanne Bradshaw and Site Agent Gini Eddleston. All have settled in well to their roles and we extend a warm welcome to all the girls.

Congratulations Simon

Simon Ellerton passing his NVQ level 2 with mentor Ben

All at Herbert T Forrest were pleased to hear of Simon Ellerton's achievement of his NVQ Level 2 in Painting and Decorating, in July of this year.

Simons route into the company was not via the traditional path. By his own admission Simon struggled at school and found it difficult to manage the academic demands. He joined the company at the age of 14 as part of an extended work experience programme, where by he attended school Monday to Thursday and came to work on Fridays.

As a result of this and the promise he showed, Simon was put forward for an apprenticeship in painting and decorating. He was assigned William (Ben) Gunn as his mentor. His hard working, no nonsense out look to training has helped Simon in developing his desire to achieve, he also assisted him with the more theoretical side of his apprenticeship, from key skills to revision techniques.

Simon has worked and studied hard during his time with us and he has overcome many challenges and faced many changes. He moved out of the Local children’s home into his own place that he now shares with his dog “Zac”.

Simon would like to thank everyone who has helped him achieve his NVQ, "especially Tim who gave me the opportunity to reach my goals".

Diversity & Equality Within The Workforce

In a continually diversifying culture Herbert T Forrest is proud to say that this is reflected in its workforce

At last he's passed

Currently 5% of our workforce are black minority ethnics (BME’s), which is representative of the local area.

In October 2003, Raghu joined the company as Trainee Q.S. He came to England in 2002 from Hyderabad, India to continue his studies and gain experience in the construction industry. Since joining the company Raghu has completed his M.Sc Project Management and is now the resident QS at the Bolton office. There was a time when it didn’t look like Raghu would make it to the Bolton office – he had some difficulty in passing his driving test. After failing on several occasions Bernard Bolton decided it was time for some tough tactics. He coached Raghu for 3 hrs each night the week before his test and finally the driving licence was issued in May of this year.

On recommendation from Raghu, his friend Kuldeep joined the firm in October 2004 as an Assistant Q.S. The majority of his work is based on NBHA contracts but he also assists on various other projects.

Both have said they found the experience of working within an English construction company rewarding and will be beneficial to their career.

We also have actively encouraged female employees into site-based positions. Currently working for us are Caron Walton, Marilee Schofield and Nicci Grant as Tenant Liaison Officers, Rachel Steele is a Quantity Surveyor and Cara Baxter is a new apprentice painter working for our partnering subcontractor Arbuckle Decorators.

Nicci Joined the company as the FDG Receptionist and after working there for approximately 18 months she was given the opportunity to train as a TLO.

From left to righ: Marilea Schofield, Rachel Steele, Nicci Grant, Cara Baxter, Tim Forrest