Our recent project with Linstone Housing Association to carry out roof and render works to properties within the Johnstone Castle area meant we could invite school leaver, Kyle McCallum into A.C. Whyte for 4 weeks of work experience on our site.

Kyle has recently left school and applied for the placement via Invest in Renfrewshire, an economic development partnership through Renfrewshire Council, designed to help grow the local economy and reduce unemployment in the Renfrewshire area, by working with local employers. Kyle has a keen interest in construction and was excited at the prospect of having some real, on site experience local to him. Kyle said:

My experience has been great from start to finish, the guys on site were always happy to help and were on hand to answer any questions I had. They kept me busy with various labouring tasks, which I enjoyed. My future goal is to have a trade under my belt, be happy in life and enjoy spending time with the people I work with, I definitely experienced that whilst being on site with the A.C. Whyte team.

We wanted to give Kyle as realistic an experience as possible and planned a month of activity that ensured he was given a good feel of what it’s like to work on a live construction site. With supervision from our Site Manager Zoltan Istvan and some of our most experienced operatives, we gave him real responsibility by providing him with tasks that would play an important part in ensuring our site was left clean and tidy at the end of each working day. Kyle also said:

I also learned about the A.C. Whyte Skills Academy whilst on site, it seems like a great opportunity and something I’m definitely interested to learn more about, as I explore my options. The prospect of having a full time job with A.C. Whyte on successful completion of the course is unique in itself.