ACHIEVE MAGAZINE
'' WE BUILT THIS CITY’ ’
We met up with an employer who has been involved in building some of Salford and Manchester’s largest developments. Over the past few years, Cara Brickwork have welcomed apprentices from Salford City College onto sites across the North West and after recently joining our Apprenticeship Champions Group, we wanted to know how and why apprenticeships work so well for them. As two former apprentices themselves, Joey and Neil Allen have built a company with almost 140 employees. Nurturing and developing talent is one of their key aims. Through the partnership with Apprenticeships at Salford City College, new talent is always in the pipeline. Brothers Joey and Neil followed in the footsteps of their father and both became bricklaying apprentices many years ago. Joey explained, “We worked for our dad as apprentice bricklayers and then worked through the different roles until we became Supervisor/Site Managers at Keith Walton Brickwork for 11 years. In this time the industry grew and so did we.” 8
After 11 years, Joey was approached with the prospect of starting up a business and now 17 years later Cara Brickwork is a well-established business across the North West and UK. With Joey Allen as Managing Director and Neil Allen as Contracts Director the brothers have their own story to tell to those new to the industry. Neil explained how over the past few years, the industry has been experiencing a severe shortage of bricklayers and at times has struggled to find the talent. This then guided them to the apprenticeship route and who better to encourage it but the directors themselves.
