Scottish learning hub welcomes thousands of young people in first year

Top 10 UK housebuilder Keepmoat is celebrating after welcoming almost 1,500 young people through the doors of its bespoke NorthBridge Training Hub at Sighthill in Glasgow during its successful first year.

Launched last year, the NorthBridge Training Hub is the latest initiative by the housebuilder to deliver Community Benefits, a piece of legislation that requires all public sector procurement plans to invest in training and recruitment. The hub is also part of the wider £250 million Sighthill Regeneration Development Plan and the Glasgow City Region Deal. 

The training hub will deliver part of the extensive community benefits plan from Keepmoat, which is tied to its decade-long development of the same name and aims to provide opportunities for education, skills training, and employment for the local community, delivering both construction and hospitality focussed training opportunities. 

Over the last year the training hub has engaged with 10 schools, two charity training providers and hosted hundreds of site visits. The team has also supported almost 1,500 young people to continue their development through the use of the training classroom and external training area for a range of construction and trade related activities including bricklaying, roofing, and joinery. 

The training hub sits in north Glasgow at Sighthill, a community benefiting from ongoing regeneration. Moving forward the hub aims to expand engagement and provide local people with pathways directly into work by creating more work experience placements, apprenticeships, and jobs.

Alice Harley, Social Value Manager at Keepmoat, said:

“As we celebrate the first full year of operations at our state-of-the-art training hub, I am absolutely delighted with the tremendous impact it has already made in providing critical skills, training and job opportunities for local young people, students, and job seekers.

“As a centralised delivery model for meeting Community Benefits commitments, the NorthBridge training hub provides a blueprint for major developments across Scotland and by investing in skills and opportunities for Glasgow residents, the hub demonstrates how regeneration projects can positively transform lives locally.”

Kevin MacLean, Curriculum Quality Leader Faculty Engineering Computing & Built Environment, Glasgow Clyde College added:

“Our collaboration with Keepmoat has been an incredibly positive experience. We’ve run National Progression Award classes at the onsite hub, participated in visits and received all round great support. Keepmoat has gone above and beyond to provide our students with materials, space, time, and industry knowledge. 

“This has allowed us to impactfully deliver our curriculum in a real-life setting. Given the success so far, we are expanding our collaboration by adding delivery of an additional National Qualification at the hub this year. This will give our learners invaluable practical experience while supporting Keepmoat with their Community Benefits plan.”

For more information about how to engage with the education initiatives at Keepmoat, visit here.