Air cadets on cloud nine after visit to Yorkshire housing development

Yorkshire cadets are flying high on engineering knowledge after being invited to a Redrow development in Sherburn in Elmet.

Around 20 cadets from the 2434 (Church Fenton) Squadron Air Training Corps, aged between 13 and 18, visited the housebuilder’s Saxon Gardens development to find out more about engineering in the housebuilding industry.

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Redrow’s technical director David Faraday spoke to them about the engineering challenges on site and area construction manager Phil Shaw showed the cadets around the show homes and the various stages of the development’s build.

Flying Officer at the squadron Marcus Griffiths said: “We’re really grateful to Redrow for providing us with such a good insight into house building. It was a fascinating talk, which brought home to us all how much actually goes in to creating a new housing estate. We’re a voluntary organisation and, although we’re sponsored by the Royal Air Force, any help from local businesses whether it be monetary or time given is really appreciated.

“A lot of our cadets are interested in engineering so the visit was such a privilege. They kept the development open for us in the evening so we could find out about some of the engineering challenges and features at Saxon Gardens.”

Redrow’s David Faraday added: “It was an absolute pleasure to welcome the cadets to Saxon Gardens. When they contacted us to say that they were interested in engineering and had already been having talks on the topic, we were only too happy to help fuel that knowledge.

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“So many of the principles and skills of construction engineering are transferable to aeronautical and mechanical engineering so hopefully they’ve been able to take away a lot of information from their visit.”

Also involved in the visit was 23-year-old Luke Wilson, formerly a trainee with Redrow, now an assistant design engineer at the housebuilder’s Wakefield office, who was able to pass on his experiences of his engineering training. Luke has also just completed his Redrow funded BTEC Level 3 Diploma in civil engineering.

Luke was one of over 15% of Redrow’s workforce who held official trainee status, including apprentices, graduates and technical trainees like him, all of which has contributed to Redrow becoming the first housebuilder to receive the British Institute of Learning and Development (BiLT) ‘Quality Mark’ for its approach to learning and development; and also becoming a Top 100 Apprenticeship Employer for the fourth year running.

The company frequently hosts visits from schools, colleges and groups like the cadets to promote career opportunities in the housebuilding sector.

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Meanwhile, the homes being ‘engineered’ at Saxon Gardens includes various styles of four-bedroom Arts & Crafts inspired Heritage Collection homes with prices starting from £272,950. More three and four bedroom homes will be coming soon.

See www.redrowcareers/co.uk for more on job opportunities with Redrow.