City Building is celebrating after being recognised as one of the country’s most diverse organisations.
The firm, which provides construction and maintenance services across Greater Glasgow, has a unique track record in promoting social inclusion, recently claiming two accolades at the Herald Diversity Awards: Diversity Star Performer - Recruitment of Talents and Youth Employment Award. The company, which has more than 2,200 staff, champions its diversity policy as the key to its success.
Since it opened its doors in 2006, City Building has helped to support communities by employing people from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures, including a high proportion of females. It also manages Europe’s largest supported business Royal Strathclyde Blindcraft Industries (RSBi) where more than 50% of employees have a disability.
As the manufacturing arm of City Building, RSBi is responsible for crafting everything from school and office furniture to timber kits for new build homes. Its staff include, people with learning difficulties, hearing and visual impairments along with veterans from recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. To ensure employees reach their full potential RSBi offers every member of staff training in life skills, IT, literacy and numeracy at its onsite Learning Centre.
Its success stories include Martin McGarvie (25), a machine operator at RSBi, who joined the company after participating in its additional support learning (ASL) schools programme. After receiving literacy and numeracy lessons, he is now planning to live independently for the first time in his life.
Meanwhile City Building’s training college, Queenslie Training Centre, delivers one of the most successful apprentice training programmes in Scotland, with a ‘pass out’ rate of 94%, which is almost a third higher than the sector average.
City Building, which currently has more than 320 apprentices on its books, is responsible for employing 20% of all female craft apprentices in Scotland. And, these female apprentices are holding their own amongst their male counterparts. Lisa Murphy (20), an apprentice painter and decorator, has won countless industry awards for excellence and was also named City Building Apprentice of the Year in 2016.
Shining star Siobhan Logue (26) who joined as an apprentice plumber, has also excelled within the organisation and is now an operations manager responsible for overseeing some of the firm’s biggest projects, including the £1.9 million refurbishment of Cuthbertson Primary School.
To help ensure candidates have a positive experience of recruitment, every applicant to City Building’s apprenticeship programme is guaranteed an attempt at the numeracy, literacy and practical stages of the process.
Other careers support includes offering one week of work experience to all Glasgow schools who wish to engage with the organisation, with more than 100 pupils taking up the opportunity last year. Its ASL schools programme, which supports SVQ qualifications in furniture manufacturing, provides work experience opportunities for more than 30 ASL students annually.
City Building is actively involved in community engagement, with staff and apprentices undertaking a variety of projects, including redecorating the city’s Marie Curie Hospice and recently raising more than £14,600 for local charities.
An independent study conducted by the Fraser of Allander Institute in 2016 showed that the firm supports a turnover of nearly £325m across companies in Glasgow, as well as a total of 3,877 jobs across the city.
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