HOUSEBUILDER Springfield Properties has announced that 23 per cent of all staff are now engaged with training or education.

Less than three years ago, the award-winning developer pledged to have 10 per cent of its workforce in training and now with 477 employees, the company is continuing to achieve this, as the business has grown by encouraging staff to undertake further development and by recruiting apprentices through its Springboard programme.

The company currently supports 110 employees in further education, training and apprenticeships. This includes 41 construction apprentices, 12 technical apprentices, 39 employees in modern apprenticeships and 18 employees undertaking higher education through training centres that work with Skills Development Scotland.

Now Springfield has pledged to take on 16 more apprentices within the next year. This includes five apprentices from Castlebrae Community High School in Edinburgh who will work on a major development in the Wisp, which is close to the school.

Connor Christie joined Springfield as an apprentice bricklayer in October 2013 and has won the Kelvin College Apprentice of the Year award each year since then.

He said: “I started the apprenticeship in bricklaying with Springfield nearly four years ago and I’ll qualify in October this year. It’s exciting to see that all my hard work is finally paying off and everything’s coming together. Bricklaying always stood out to me as a career.”