Carillion to provide T5 trainees

Carillion is to set up a new craft training centre near Heathrow Airport which will supply workers for T5.

The centre, due to open in September, will provide construction apprenticeships for more than 200 16- to 24-year-olds over the next three years. It is backed by nearly £1m of funding from the London West Learning and Skills Council, with BAA contributing £200,000.

Firms involved in the construction of T5 will give work experience to apprentices from the centre, as part of BAA's wider initiative aimed at attracting more local labour to the project.

The centre will offer a range of apprenticeships, including carpentry, joinery, bricklaying and concrete dry lining, and will also feature the south of England's first training facility for steel erection.

"We looked at several construction firms' training products and Carillion's was the one we liked the best," said T5 construction director Andrew Wolstenholme. "It's our intention that when T5 workers complete the project, they will be among the best trained in the industry."

• The high proportion of prefabrication at T5 is helping to ensure the building programme remains on schedule, new T5 managing director Tony Douglas said last week.

"So far, around 130 lessons have been learnt in the prefabrication processes that would otherwise have been learnt on site," he added.