7/5/2008 I want to bring back the building industry's boom times
WILLIE DOCHERTY is preparing himself for a deluge.
But not of the rain that typically signals stoppage of work on the building sites of Glasgow, where he's plied his trade for four decades.
Instead he's expecting another downpour of applications from those eager to join Britain's biggest apprenticeship scheme.
The managing director of City Building will oversee the recruitment campaign that will begin on Monday to select 70 new modern apprentices in a scheme that was oversubscribed last year by 25 times its capacity.
It's a far cry from Docherty's own teenage years in Castlemilk when he walked straight into a carpentry apprenticeship at the Yarrow's shipyard in Scotstoun in 1972.
Yet, if Willie has his way, recreating the job availability of boomtime construction is a goal that's just around the corner.
From next year, more schoolleavers than ever before - more than 2000 - will be given places in a council-sponsored GBP30million training initiative.
The scheme has been made possible by a bulging construction orderbook for the Commonwealth Games, the Clyde Waterfront Regeneration and the M74 completion.
The bulk of those trainees will become new charges through the doors of City Building's training centre in Queenslie, many starting four-year apprenticeships in joinery, bricklaying, electrics, roofing and plumbing.
It's an exciting time - and no doubt a logistical nightmare - for a company that already employs around 2500 construction workers and has an annual turnover of around GBP150m.
"By the time of the Commonwealth Games, we will probably be the dominant construction force in the West of Scotland, " says Docherty, 51, sitting across the boldly-emblemed desk in the company's meeting room in Darnick Street.
"There are four or five companies bigger than us in Scotland, but only in terms of turnover - not in terms of staff."
Willie has climbed a steep career ladder since starting his carpentry apprenticeship as a fresh-faced, tank-topped 16-yearold from Castlemilk.
He worked at Yarrow for more than six years. He then made a vital decision that would shape his life's course forever.
"The big catalyst for me was in 1980. There was a big recession and people were being laid off everywhere.
"I decided then that going to college and getting further education was the way to secure my future."
Studying for vocational Higher National qualifications at nightclasses at the then College of Building and Printing expanded his horizons.
Docherty took advantage of opportunities to become a member of the Chartered Institute of Building and achieve his MBA from the University of Strathclyde.
He joined Building Services in the early 1990s and became project manager on the council's then biggest housing refurbishment scheme in his home patch of Castlemilk. "It was nice to go back full circle, " he adds.
From there, he worked his way up through the council ranks to become manager of the City Windows division at Queenslie, then deputy director for Building Services.
He became director of Building Services and steered the department to become an autonomous company operating as City Building Glasgow LLP in October 2006.
Today Willie Docherty is a major player in one of the city's most exciting periods of construction and regeneration.
Offering training places to around half of Glasgow's school leavers is just one part of a far bigger, inclusive, forwardthinking strategy.
You can see social responsibility is an ethic that dominates Docherty's priorities.
The man, only last month named Best Public Sector Director at the Institute of Directors Awards, has his eye on the big picture in putting together a package of strict environmental standards for the company's workforce to adhere to.
The standards include sustainable, responsible sourcing of raw materials and strict waste management, and they will soon receive the ISO-18001 certificate for occupational health and safety standards from the British Standards Institute.
"It's our ambition, at the end of this year, to be the most environmentally-aware constructor in the country, " he says.
"We want our workforces to be socially and environmentally aware." You can see evidence of that social responsibility ethos in the firm's outreach initiatives.
Their recruitment campaign - Construction For All - targeted diverse ethnic groups and single parents, a group of 10 City Building workers last year built an Aids testing clinic in Malawi and the firm's further education of its staff includes three employees studying law parttime at Strathclyde Uni.
"I think there's a sea change, people are seeing that the best way to do business is to recruit your own staff, nurture them and you get more benefits that way, " says Docherty.
Willie lives with wife Sadie - now the councillor for Castlemilk - in Cathcart.
He likes reading and regularly watches - rather than plays - football, the curse of too many building sites having taken their toll on his knees and ankles.
The couple have two grown-up children. John, 21 next month, is an apprentice engineer, and Karen, 26, works for GHA.
"They're just two normal kids - we don't see them much, " he smiles, before adding diplomatically, "They take advantage of the retail and social side of the economy in Glasgow."
Through his kids, Willie sees the changing face of Glasgow.
"The people of Glasgow have far higher aspirations now.
"Before we had the days of social rented housing - but now they have higher aspirations for homes, jobs and in their quality of life. That will drive the economy in Glasgow.
"Hopefully we can return the benefits into jobs and training and recruitment."
City Building now operates at arms-length from the council, carrying out repairs for the GHA (it recently completed its one-millionth job) while tendering for private construction contracts and maintenance jobs, and selling its Royal Strathclyde Blindcraft Industries kitchens and products to major housebuilding companies.
"The council sees us as an autonomous business working both in the public and private sector, but with a council ethos in terms of jobs, training, employment - it's the best of both worlds. We make money and we create a lot of jobs and training."
If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery Willie can look to the other councils which have peeked in on the set-up in Glasgow.
In the last few months they've had visits from council operatives from Cardiff, Stirling and Dublin, while Willie himself has been asked to give presentations to councils and corporations in the Clyde Valley and further afield.
Moreover, the success of the company's training efforts, which Willie has called "the Eton of construction programmes", has been well recognised in the industry.
C4's Property Ladder presenter Sarah Beeny bestowed the honour of Apprentice of the Year on 21-yearold carpenter Mark Lynch at the Master Builder of the Year Awards in November.
Meanwhile, fellow City Building trainee and third-year wood machinist Stephen Miller, who is deaf, was given a special recognition award at the Scottish Building Apprenticeship and Training Council awards in October.
Old Firm players, including Rangers' Barry Ferguson and Celtic's Paul Hartley, have helped raise the profile of the company's Construction For All scheme, specifically targeting demographics and ethnic groups under-represented in the industry.
Nine people with disabilities were recruited to the training scheme last year, while Docherty points to the success of another niche recruitment drive, which has seen lone parents enrolled in a two-year fast-track course.
"Traditionally females with children couldn't get in, but they've turned out to be amazing tradespersons, " says Docherty.
"The remuneration they can get is exceptional. Joiners, electricians and plumbers will be earning in excess of GBP30,000 a year.
"Traditionally these people will have been getting part-time jobs at minimum wage, so that's a big difference."
The firm's commitment to training will have a shiny new beacon when the Construction Skills Academy opens in August, at the former St John's Primary School in Laurieston.
The GBP1.5m-refurbished facility will train around 266 people a year in skills such as ceramic tiling, painting, joinery, paving and kerb-laying.
City Building is involved in a series of high profile initiatives in the public and private sector.
The company is working with New City Vision on the GBP200m Drumchapel New Neighbourhood Initiative to build 1200 homes over five years;
it is the main contractor for building 12 new city primary schools;
and last year it fitted out City Refrigeration's new headquarters in Lawmoor Street in the Gorbals.
Through expansion of its training scheme, and the opportunities afforded by the Commonwealth Games and new housing stock provision, City Building is one cog in the wheel of the grander scheme to create a healthier, wealthier Glasgow.
"You have to hand a legacy to people down the line, and I look at these apprentices who are 19 or 20 years-old and think I need to leave something for them, " says Willie.
"Hopefully they can do the same that I did - to be an apprentice and work their way up to become the director of this company.
"That would be a nice thing to happen."
April 5, 2008
