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Apprentices and representatives of Dee Park Partnership with Cllr Jo Lovelock, far right, in front of Oak Tree House
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Dee Park Project helps young build a future

By Linda Fort
February 16, 2012

The regeneration in Dee Park is helping young people with jobs and training.

The Dee Park Partnership celebrated National Apprenticeship Week last week by highlighting the work of its apprentices.

Dee Park in Tilehurst is undergoing a major regeneration through a joint venture between Willmott Dixon and Catalyst Housing in partnership with Reading Borough Council (RBC).

Working on site are apprentices Shannon Kelly, 18, Daniel Jerrom, 18 and Wesley Petterson, 21.

Each is specialising in a different trade and gets on-the-job training, combined with day release at college to back their practical skills with recognised qualifications.

Studying plumbing at Reading College and working part-time in a shop, Shannon was struggling to find an apprenticeship.

She said: “It’s really hard, I spent months calling plumbing companies but got nothing.”

After being accepted as an apprentice with Willmott Dixon, she is well on the way to becoming a qualified plumber.

She added: “I’m learning loads at work, my supervisor is really good and everyone is always willing to help me.

“I’m the only girl on site at the moment, but I would definitely encourage more girls to go into trades and the building business.”

Daniel had trained as a mechanic on part-time release from school and hoped to get an apprenticeship, but it never materialised and he spent months without any work.

He discovered a love of carpentry through working with a neighbour and leapt at the chance to become a carpentry apprentice at Dee Park.

He said: “I can see myself doing this in the long run. Work experience was quite basic, but now I’m doing a lot of precision work. I love seeing the end product.”

Wesley had been working as a school assistant “to keep busy”, while looking for a job.

A few years ago he had taken a six-month construction course, where he’d excelled at bricklaying, but had never taken it further until the chance came up to work as an apprentice bricklayer at Dee Park.

He said: “I’ve really found my calling. At college they say I’m a natural at bricklaying and the apprenticeship has given me the chance to start my career and get all the training I need.”

Willmott Dixon’s partner in DPP, Catalyst Housing, is helping people at Dee Park find work by running a job club for 16- to 24-year-olds as well as a general job club for all ages.

It is also working with New Directions, the council’s learning and employment service, to help local people obtain Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) cards, which are increasingly required as a test of competence before being accepted for a job on a building site.

Andrew Sinclair, project director for Dee Park Partnership, said: “As a policy, we always try to employ local people on our construction projects whenever possible and it is very satisfying for everyone that they can play a part in improving their own community.”

Councillor Jo Lovelock, chair of the Dee Park Board and borough council leader, said: “In these days of high youth unemployment it is essential that local schemes like the Dee Park regeneration should offer opportunities for young people.

“I am really pleased with the commitment shown by Willmott Dixon and Catalyst in providing apprenticeships and other valuable initiatives.”

In the first phase of the eight-year project, Dee Park Partnership is providing 261 homes, both private housing and homes for social rent, and a new extra care facility for the elderly.

The council has recently approved plans for the next phase, which will provide a further 106 homes.

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Most recent user comments 8 of 8

OK LM. I'd agree stats can be maniplulated - as our own dear RBC is only too well aware. I just try to 'illustrate with examples' when I can.

Dee Rd was originally built on old allotments, to house those in need, constructed with what later turned out to be sub-standard materials - anyone remember the 'concrete cancer' that affected the Lyon Square flats? i'm too yuung to remember where the families and residents originally came from, in terms of where were they housed before, if at all, but i do recall lots of families seemed to hail originally from outside tilehurst/southcote/RG3 area, and as they needed to be integrated into the local school (Grovelands Primary, Westwood/Stoneham etc) which caused a few punch ups between the kids!

Generally speaking, the idea was sound, the physical layout pretty good - not too crowded, small but functional gardens, facilities (shops, a church, a school, a pub and even the Fire Station in close proximity - how often do we see all that now) as well as age-mixing, with the older people housed on the peripheries of the estate.

The regeneration was long overdue - some of the flats were cold and damp, difficult to heat and not very well soundproofed. Lots of the residents have been there a long time and surely, if it was that bad, they would have moved out.

voiceoftreason?
22/02/2012 at 13:33

VoiceOftreason-Im not irritated at all by your use of stats, and I cast no dispertions on anybody specific-Im just stating that statiistics can be tailored to fit any point of view-and not always necessarily actually tel a story

Lionel Messi's Right Foot, Reading
20/02/2012 at 12:03

I feel sorry for the old people who have to live there.

deinh
20/02/2012 at 11:09

Lionel - I never post personal information on here. Suffice it to say I watched Dee Rd estate being built, had and have friends and relatives that live there and grew up nearby. I know exactly what sort of people live there -all sorts, good bad and indifferent. As for statistics, well clearly you are irritated I supported my opinion with evidence, rather than vitriol like you.

voiceoftreason?
17/02/2012 at 20:31

Well, voice of treason, as Mark Twain once said "There are lies, damn lies and statistics"-statistics do not tell the whole story-cquite clearly you have never been near Ranikhet school at 08:30 every morning where the getting to work in time worry that most people face is clearly not a worry for the people of Dee ROAD, they only have to make sure they are back and the kettle's boiled in time to see their friends on the jeremy Kyle show.

You either live on Dee ROAD, or you never spend any time there...either way you are blinkered as to what sort of people usually frequent the area

Lionel Messi's Right Foot, Reading
17/02/2012 at 15:27

Dee Road will always be Dee Road. I know it, you know it, we all know it.

deinh
17/02/2012 at 10:11

LMRF - I really don't like sweeping statements. I dislike inaccurate ones even more. According to the Suitability Appraisal of Dee Park - Draft Planning Brief of July 2008 (RBC) only 4% of the people in the area were unemployed. There are more pensioners in this area than others in Reading (are they the scroungers you meant?) and Dee Park had nil recievers of income support at that time.

It was ranked 39th and 57th respectively of the 93 areas in Reading for criminal activity - kind of middle ranking i'd say. More than 57% of people own a car so i think you'll find the majority already have one, thanks and as for deprivation welll of the 93 areas in Reading its ranked 10th and 11th respectively - towards the top yes but by no means the worst.

44.2% of the houses are actually owner occupied - so that rather shoots you 'expect the state to provide everything for them' down in flames a bit eh?

Oh and let's not forget that the Fire Station HQ has been sited there since the beginning - maybe they were the people you were thinking of as having 'little or no moral fibre in the area'...............?

voiceoftreason?
17/02/2012 at 09:57

On a side issue to this, the fact that all this taxpayers money is being spent on overhauling Dee Road Estate (Let's get it right, it is called Dee Road Estate, and will always be called Dee Road Estate)..will in 20 years be seen as a complete waste of money...

The problem is that,whilst the council has chosen to spend the money, the housing policy that it chooses to implement when allocating the properties will remain the same.....