Piloting through an exciting BAME industry first

It’ll come as little surprise to our partners and candidates that Esteem Training’s award-winning team is firmly committed to playing our part in helping to create greater career opportunities, in fair and supportive working environments, for as many construction professionals as possible.

We’re therefore excited and proud to announce that we have partnered with CEMVO Scotland and nine other successful Scottish organisations in an industry-first pilot project with its sights set on recruiting more BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) workers, in our case to join Scotland’s construction workforce.

CEMVO Scotland, based in Glasgow, has a national remit to work in partnership with the Scottish Government’s Equality Unit to build capacity and resilience within our nation’s diverse communities and ethnic minority groups. CEMVO’s team works closely at community level with over 600 ethnic minority voluntary sector organisations, supporting a range of social enterprises as well as running programmes that deliver leadership training, race equality consultancy, and access to financial advice for under-represented ethnic groups and associations.

Our Esteem team provides supportive in-depth and practically-oriented supervisory and management training for construction professionals throughout the UK. Under this CEMVO Scotland pilot programme, we hope to review our recruitment and selection processes to help attract BAME candidates to work with us as key members of our team.

We’re also actively encouraging construction companies with strong links to the BAME communities to work with us, under the Modern Apprenticeship framework, to upskill their teams and acquire advanced skills in occupational site supervision, construction site supervision and construction site management to help propel their businesses forward and even, potentially, win new work.

Esteem’s Financial Director Ian Grigg and Operations Director Martina Höfner are leading the charge for our team. Both have already completed the first of CEMVO Scotland’s three specialist training sessions.

Ian commented: “We’re delighted that two of our partner organisations – George Leslie Limited, Civil Engineering Contractors and CCG Construction and Manufacturing Group – have also joined this ambitious pilot programme. They, too, have committed to recruit more BAME employees to join their staff.

“It’s a challenging but also an exciting time for our industry and for Scotland’s economy as a whole. We’re all aware that future growth of the Scottish economy is closely tied to recruiting fresh supplies of talent, including from groups who may have been overlooked in the past. That simply can’t be allowed to continue.

“We therefore fully support CEMVO Scotland in piloting this industry first partnership and we’re honoured to be taking our place in the prestigious pilot group alongside such household names as Scotrail, Barclays Bank and Rangers Football Club.”

Practical information and resources to help our partner companies address diversity and inclusion within their teams can be found in our recent blog: Diversity and inclusion – Walking the walk.