Bradfords Building Supplies is providing £7000-worth of new tools to apprentices from award winning housing association, Aster Group.
Seven apprentices visited Bradfords Blandford branch to collect their Stanley Babushka toolboxes which are each worth £1000.
Carpentry and plumbing apprentices, Will Green, Liam Gale, Karl Jackson, James Hodge, Tyler Baker, Alex Sanchez, Billy McNeilly joined Aster in the Autumn of 2019 and are part of the Dorset Response East and West teams.
David Cooke, Partnership Director at Bradfords Building Supplies commented: “As an independent and family owned business with 700 staff and 55,000 customers, we take our commitment to the communities where our 42 branches are based very seriously.
“Working with organisations like Aster helps Bradfords to deliver on its own social value commitments. We hope the tools, provided by Bradfords will help each apprentice at the start of a rewarding career with Aster.”
Neil Shardlow, Aster Head of Operations - South, said, “Our apprenticeship programme is an important part of our ongoing work to support the next generation of skilled trades to ensure our homes are good quality, well maintained and safe.
“This year we invested a record £52.5 million into repairing and maintaining our homes across the South and South West of England and this group of young people will help us to continue that delivery into the future. It’s great to see Bradfords working with us to support them.”
Bradfords, who is celebrating its 250th anniversary in 2020, has been providing building materials to developer and ethical landlord, Aster Group, since 2016. Bradford’s Partnership Team was formed to provide, innovative, customer focused solutions to Housing Providers and is an important and growing part of Bradfords business model.
Bradfords currently has eight apprentices on its award-winning programme. Six apprentices from previous cohorts have entered full-time employment with the company.
