As the UK celebrates National Apprenticeship Week, leading housebuilder Persimmon Homes has today announced it is to become the first in the industry to deliver its own NVQ programme for site managers.

The company has been accredited by international awarding organisation NOCN to deliver NVQ courses as part of its new Persimmon Pathway Programme.

The Persimmon Pathway is a structured career development programme created to take employees on a journey from induction through to excellence. Initially created for site managers, sales and customer services, the pathways will eventually support colleagues in every area of the 6,000-strong business.

Paul Curry, Persimmon’s group training manager, says the business will start with site manager construction pathways: “As part of our site manager pathway, Persimmon was a pilot organisation for the new NHBC assistant site manager programme, providing a progression route for new trainee assistant site managers. Taking this one stage further, we are now commencing a programme to qualify around 350 of our site management team with relevant vocational qualifications.

“The first NVQs we will offer through our own assessment centre will be site manager construction at levels 3, 4 and 6 – a first for the housebuilding industry. All new starters already on the NVQ pathway will be registered onto our own internal programme of development which will allow them to continually develop their careers.”

NOCN will support Persimmon as it delivers more NVQ programmes. The company is a trusted and recognised education partner with more than 30 years’ experience.

Louise Allen, NOCN Group business and development director said: “We are delighted to be working with Persimmon Homes as they provide pathways to support their employees with continuous lifelong-learning. We are proud to work with an organisation that has a strong history in employee training and development. The new Persimmon Homes training centre, alongside our NOCN qualifications will only help to support employee development further.”

Developing colleagues through the business is key to Persimmon’s growth and progression, and the company has a proud history of training and promoting from within. To view the most recent opportunities, visit www.persimmonjobs.com.