Building Careers

St Patrick’s is not just building a community; it’s building futures.

During the early days of St Patrick’s Shared Housing’s development, Radius Housing hosted two apprenticeship information and recruitment events to offer young and aspiring people from the local area opportunities to work alongside and become an integral part of the building of the St Patrick’s community.

Here are some words from Billy, one of the site’s apprentices, on his experience:

In January 2022, Radius hosted a drop in ‘Information and Careers in Construction’ event at the Adair Arms Hotel to provide information to and potentially recruit young people to work on the site. The event was hosted in partnership with many other organisations and stakeholders involved in the site, including MJ McBride, the NI Housing Executive, Construction Industry Training Board NI (CITBNI), the Mid & East Antrim Borough Council (MEABC) and the Northern Regional College (NRC).

Radius Housing staff were on hand to share information on the ‘Housing for All’ initiative and in particular about shared housing at St Patrick’s. They also talked to people present about careers in Radius and the wider housing sector.

Then, in February, Radius and many of the same stakeholders held an Apprenticeship Week recruitment event, providing students from NRC and the wider community more opportunities to become involved in the site and construction industry and have ‘a go’ at bricklaying skills at the St Patrick’s site. Attendees also had a chance to meet with and discuss further opportunities with contractors.

The event was advertised widely in the community through social media, text alerts to existing tenants and through our Advisory Group members. 21 participants took part on the day.