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Major Carillion contract will create apprenticeships

More apprentices will be taken on by Wolverhampton-based Carillion after it was appointed to deliver part of a major new road improvements programme for the Highways Agency.

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Many will be trained in the Black Country and Birmingham but the number to be taken on will depend on exactly how much work Carillion in awarded under the new framework which will see the agency invest £5 billion over the next five years.

Carillion has been selected as one of five contractors that will deliver new highway schemes with values of between £100 million and £450m.

Carillion chief executive, Richard Howson, said: "We are delighted to have been selected to deliver the largest category of contracts under the Highway's Agency's new Collaborative Delivery Framework, which is consistent with our selective approach of focusing on large contracts and long-term customers.

Richard Howson

"We look forward to continuing the strong partnership we have developed with the agency to deliver this important programme."

Carillion expects to generate up to £500m of revenue from projects within the framework over the five-year period.

|The group is the leading trainer of apprentices in its sector, with up to 2,000 apprentices in training at any one time and the appointment is expected to create a substantial number of new apprenticeship opportunities.

The construction and support services group, which employs about 40,000 in the this country and abroad, is already recruiting new apprentices in the Black Country and Birmingham to start in January including bricklayers, carpenters, plasterers and painters and decorators.

Carillion spokeswoman Jane Smith said that the local apprentices would be trained at Carillion's training centres at The Waterfront, Brierley Hill, and at Erdington, Birmingham.

"They are among 13 training centres we have across the country. The overall number of new apprentices we take on will depend on exactly how much work we get from the framework," she added.

The agency will be investing in England's motorways and major A roads and it will be the largest framework programme the agency has ever awarded.

It will allow the Highways Agency to deliver large-scale improvements to main roads and is also intended to support economic growth across the country.

Of the £5 billion of planned investment, approximately £2.7 billion will be spent on schemes valued at between £100m and £450m.

Carillion had revenue of £4.1 billion in 2013 of some £4.1 billion and operates across the UK, in the Middle East and Canada.

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