Jelson has been building traditional family homes across the East Midlands for over 130 years. It’s a Leicestershire-based family firm, with strong connections and commitment to the local community.

Jelson works with Leicester College on apprenticeships, hiring bricklayers, joiners, plasterers and painters. The company generally hires 8-10 apprentices annually but due to rescheduling after Covid lockdowns, currently works with 33 Leicester College apprentices across a two-year cycle.

The College helps Jelson to secure the apprentice places and delivers the theoretical side of their training while Jelson provides the work experience.

Talking about the company’s apprenticeships and relationship with Leicester College, Charlotte Doherty, Senior Group HR Administrator at Jelson said: “Our approach to apprenticeships is reflected in our values of family and longevity. We like people to come in and stay with the business, so taking on a younger workforce interested in construction makes real sense to us.

“The apprentices are overseen by different mentors and site managers so get a range of experiences and skills whilst on site. We are supportive to those starting out on their careers. We’ve seen some great success stories from this model with apprentices working through to become site managers, opening their own businesses after working with Jelson and even sub-contracting with us. All of this is achieved as a result of the high-quality training from Leicester College and the support that they receive from Jelson.”

Plastering Apprentice at Leicester College, Mackensay Marriott added: “So far I am really enjoying College, as we learn things that we wouldn’t on site, such as screeding and much more, which I think is good because if we ever had a private job and had to do something like it, we could then do it as we’ve been taught it. If we weren’t taught, then we wouldn’t have a clue what to do.

“Nick is a really good teacher and will always have a challenge for us, and before anything we do, he will always do a demonstration so we know how to do it from there. We then do it ourselves and if we need any help, he will come over, but see where we are going wrong first, then correct our work. We do theory once a month, and at the minute we are focussing on health and safety.”