Solent: Growth continues at Henderson Green

Leading south coast building services consultancy Henderson Green is increasing its team with five new employees.

This increase includes an expansion of its junior intake programme, which is now in its 12th year, and marks the start of the company’s association with the Government’s official apprenticeship scheme.

The two new engineering apprentices, Shannen Birks (21) and Zak French (19), follow in the footsteps of Ben Webster, who was the company’s third junior engineer and the most recent to graduate. Webster graduated this year with a first-class honours BEng degree in building services engineering.

Birks and French will begin their training at Southampton City College, and continue it at London Southbank University.

Also joining the apprenticeship scheme is Jonathan Clark who joined Henderson Green in 2012. Clark is working towards achieving construction/building services BTec diploma, also at Southampton City College.

Other recent recruits are mechanical engineer Alec Stillwell, a ventilation and environmental control system specialist; Ben O’Shea who comes straight from college to take on the role of junior CAD technician; and Kayleigh Chamberlain who is transferring her CAD skills from kitchen design to building services.

In addition to the junior engineer development training, Katarzyna Kopacz, a mechanical engineer with Henderson Green since 2006, has recently been successful in gaining BREEAM Accredited Professional accreditation, with excellent pass marks for the two required exams.

“Henderson Green finds recruiting engineers at junior level a great success,” commented Russ Pitman, managing director.  “We find that taking young people onboard, at an early stage in their engineering career, gives us the opportunity to develop their skills within the company framework.

"It is a two-way process as we invest in them and they invest their future with us. We believe our ongoing training investment for all employees has been instrumental in achieving a much higher than average staff retention rate.”

The new recruits will join existing employees to take part in Henderson Green’s 2014 annual teambuilding event this month, which will include orienteering, caving and archery at an outdoor activity centre in Milton Keynes.

The Southampton and Channel-Islands based practice works for an array of clients in the healthcare, education and commercial sectors.