Wates has announced its biggest ever trainee and apprenticeship drive, which will see 96 new roles in the 2022 intake, of which a third will be based in the North.

The firm is joining the Northern Coalition on Skills, further expanding its footprint in the North in support of the national levelling up agenda.

The Coalition, formed by the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, is a leading group of large businesses and SMEs from across the North. Set up in August 2021, the group is focused on tackling the North-South skills gap, which has widened from 4 percentage points to 7 percentage points over the past 16 years.

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It also aims to return apprenticeship numbers to pre-pandemic levels, with the number of people starting an apprenticeship falling by 58,000 nationally over the past two years, an impact being felt worst in the North, where the number dropped by 23,000 a 22 per cent decrease. In 2020, 37.5% of people aged 16-64 in the Northern Powerhouse had at least an NVQ4+ qualification, 7.3% lower than those based outside the region in England. This gap has grown 3% since 2004.

Wates is responsible for landmark developments across the region, including the new Government hub in Leeds, the new British Library in Boston Spa, Teesside University, and the first phase of zero carbon schools for the DfE in Lancashire and Greater Manchester.

Most recently, the firm has been appointed by Envision AESC to lead the design of its £450 million advanced car battery gigafactory in Sunderland and South Tyneside. Planning permission was granted in October for an initial 9GWh plant, with potential future-phase investment by Envision AESC of £1.8 billion. This will create 4,500 new high-value green jobs by 2030 and the region and its residents at the heart of the electric car revolution.