A FORMER Shelley High School pupil is helping prove the value of apprenticeships in the construction sector.

Ben Hebden, 23, of Grange Moor, is one of three new management appointees at Redrow Homes.

Ben and colleagues Curtis Taylor and Matt Rooney all began their careers as apprentice joiners with the UK housebuilder.

Five years on, they have just become assistant site managers – a position which brings with it a competitive salary, company car, laptop mobile phone and other tools of the trade – at a time when many of their peers may be coming out of university with large debts and yet to find work.

Ben, who joined Redrow Homes (Yorkshire) as an apprentice in 2007, said: "I actually took my A-levels and had planned to go to university to study construction management.

"However, in the end I made a conscious decision to become an apprentice instead. I felt I would get more of a grounding in the practical side of the job and that ultimately people would respect me more as a manager if I had come through the ranks."

He said: "In the end, I’m glad I made the decision I did. Having done A-levels, including business studies, and starting my apprenticeship a little later than most, I think it made my assistant site manager training that bit easier. I was more mature and had experienced working part-time in a lighting shop in Huddersfield, dealing with the public.

"I’d definitely recommend an apprenticeship to today’s teenagers. I’ve earned money and learnt a trade while friends who went to university were always skint. I’ve got good friends who’ve graduated in law and journalism but can’t get jobs in their chosen careers so are now doing something else that isn’t relevant to their degree."

For the past 18 months, Ben has been working at Redrow’s Wheatley Chase development in Halifax but is about to move to Branwell Park in Guiseley.

"I love that every day is different in my job," he said. "Things are constantly changing on site and you are always learning. I’d love to rise through the ranks and would also like to spend time working in different departments, such as technical and quantity surveying so that I get a much fuller understanding of the housebuilding business."

Karen Jones, Redrow’s human resources director, said: "Undoubtedly, a degree can be a major asset and Redrow invests in a number of graduate and undergraduate training programmes of its own. However, the value of a trade apprenticeship is often vastly under-estimated.

"Ben, Curtis and Matt had the benefit of earning a wage while they learned their trade. After achieving their NVQ Level 3 in carpentry and joinery in 2010, they went on to become trainee assistant site managers, achieving NVQ Level 3 in site supervision.

"Each has now reached the level expected of them to take on the assistant site manager role proper and they’re well on their way to becoming future site managers, in charge of every element of construction on one of our housing sites across England and Wales."