Celebrating construction apprentices and FMB members in Scotland

The first week of March is traditionally when Scottish Apprenticeship Week is held. It is an annual celebration of the benefits apprenticeships bring to individuals, businesses and the economy.

We know that in Scotland it is small and medium-sized firms that train the vast majority of construction apprentices. I’ve met FMB members across the length and breadth of Scotland, who are passionate about employing and training apprentices: the Master Builders of tomorrow! The CITB know where we and our members stand on construction apprenticeships. So we were happy to accept their invitation to host a stall at a reception in the Garden Lobby of the Scottish Parliament on 5 March to celebrate Scottish Apprenticeship Week.

Builders take to the Garden (Lobby)

We were joined by Musselburgh-based members HM Raitt & Sons Ltd: who are joiners and main contractors. With thanks to Gavin Richardson and Roddy McCafferty (more on Roddy below) who joined me at our stall. Now Gavin had some excellent ideas to get politicians and other delegates stuck into a craft skills demonstration: with tools and a large model to work on. Unfortunately, the Parliament’s rules about what can and can’t be permitted in the building thwarted Gavin’s ambitions. However, Gavin and Roddy are adept problem-solvers, so we arrived at a Plan B. 

Speaking from the heart

There was a real buzz around our stall, with the CITB’s Chair Peter Lauener, fellow FMB members and the host MSP Monica Lennon, all engaging with Gavin, Roddy and me. With around 130 delegates in the lobby, it would take confident and experienced speakers to address this audience. Now this is where Roddy took the plaudits. He won our Scotland Apprentice Award at the 2021 Master Builder Awards and I was delighted that he said he would be happy to speak at the reception. Cometh the hour, cometh the man though! His eloquent and personal short speech (with a good dose of humour) was extremely well received.

So my congratulations to Roddy and my thanks also to our Scotland President Alastair Raitt, and Gavin Richardson for their help. It was great to see Noah Archibald from Haldane Construction Services and winner of FMB’s 2023 Scotland Apprentice Award at the event, as well as Pam Wilson and Robert Wilson: fellow members of the FMB Scotland Board. I should add that Pam and Robert aren’t related.

The 2025 Scottish Apprenticeship Week is a long way off but if fellow members have apprentices they would like to showcase, please get in touch.

Authors

Gordon Nelson

FMB Scotland Hub Director, Federation of Master Builders

Director, Federation of Master Builders Scotland

Gordon has nearly twenty years’ experience of working in membership organisations in Scotland and joined the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) in 2014. Prior to this, he worked at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and for Unilever in business development, membership management and business-to-business marketing roles. Amongst his responsibilities in his role as the Director for FMB Scotland are public affairs, media relations, governance and representing member’s interests to Scottish policy makers and stakeholders within the Scottish construction industry. Gordon is the Secretary of the Cross-Party Group on Construction in the Scottish Parliament, and he is a member of the Scottish Building Standards Futures Board. Gordon represents the FMB on Scotland’s Construction Industry Collective Voice: which is comprised of the leading construction trade and professional bodies. In spring 2023 Gordon was appointed as an industry co-chair of the Construction Leaderships Forum’s (CLF) Transformation Board.

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