VGC has won a ‘Highly Commended’ IRP award for Best Corporate Social Responsibility Practitioner.
Our entry described our ‘go beyond the gates’ programme to support ex-offenders into construction careers. The judges examined how we engage with stakeholders to benefit the community, as well as enhancing the image of the recruitment industry.
Since we started the programme, we have developed relationship with partners including BounceBack, A Fairer Chance, Shaw Trust, Key4Life and Mind the Gap. Our teams, led by skills and employment adviser Kimberley McGinty, regularly attend prisons and probation services to engage with people who want a second chance. They had talked to 704 people by September this year.
We are not working alone. We co-founded the Infrastructure Employment Forum, a partnership of construction companies.Together we support ex-offenders into sustainable careers.
A career in construction, working outdoors in structured teams, offers an excellent opportunity to some of the UK’s most vulnerable people. And we help the construction industry to tap into a labour resource at a time when it is experiencing a skills shortage.
About the IRP awards
The IRP recruitment awards reward best practice and professional recruitment excellence. They are managed by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and Institute of Recruitment Professionals.
Last year, VGC was shortlisted for Corporate and Social Responsibility Practitioner of the Year, for our work on apprenticeships. As members of The 5% Club, we aim to have at least five per cent of our workforce in ‘earn and learn’ positions within five years. Well over 6% of our people were on apprenticeships in September 2018. See our awards page for other awards we have won.
By offering work experience, apprenticeship and recruitment programmes, we support wider society as well as our work community, and allow us to recruit the best people for the job.
The IRP award winners were announced at a ceremony on 27 November 2019 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel. The Corporate Social Responsibilty Practitioner of the Year award went to Girling Jones Ltd.
