National Skills Academy

Denne Employment & Skills Programme

Denne were the first construction company in the UK to set up a National Skills Academy for Construction accredited skills centre.  This was in 2007 and based on our Stanhope regeneration project in Ashford. 

Two years later we established a further skills centre on our Building Schools for the Future projects in Thanet.  Between these two centres we placed 56 apprentices, arranged 210 NVQs, carried out 352 CSCS tests, provided work experience for 47 school students and 77 young people and placed 12 people in to employment.   Recognition for this work was received by Denne being awarded the South East Employer of the Year and the Youth Employment award by JobCentre Plus and being awarded Platinum Employer status by Kent Education Business Partnership.    

Our approach formed the basis of the “Client Based Approach” developed by ConstructionSkills and used by the Homes & Community Agency in their guidance to Registered Providers and Developers.  

In 2011 Denne became the first UK construction company to receive the “Programme Based Approach” accreditation by the National Skills Academy.  This means that the delivery of our employment & skills programme across all our sites is assessed by ConstructionSkills.

We are currently running three National Skills Academy accredited skills centres based at our schemes in South Kilburn, Brighton and Rochester Riverside.  A fourth centre is due to open in Harlow shortly.  In addition we deliver employment & skills programmes on smaller sites where it is not practical to establish a skill centre.  Each of our centres has a dedicated project skills coordinator who is responsible for arranging apprenticeships and local employment, delivering school engagement and coordinating activities between the project teams, colleges, JobCentre Plus other local agencies.