Balfour Beatty VINCI, one of the contractors constructing HS2, has just taken on its 500th apprentice as part of the project.

Trainee formworker Kordell Carty, from Aston in Birmingham, has been employed by HS2’s West Midlands construction partner Balfour Beatty VINCI, and is the latest of 2,000 apprenticeships that HS2 and its supply chain will create over the duration of the project.

Kordell previously worked in house building, and learned about the apprenticeship through a friend who had obtained a steel fixing apprenticeship on HS2.

He was keen to work on a large-scale project, but was not familiar with the profession of formworking, which creates the foundation elements for temporary and permanent concrete structures..

Working towards a level 2 apprenticeship qualification, Kordell is part of a 35-strong team building a structure to allow HS2 to cross a brook and a bypass channel of the River Blythe in Warwickshire.

Besides learning on the job, Kordell is studying at Balfour Beatty VINVI’s apprenticeship training hub in Warwickshire, which was opened to help fill a skills gap in the construction of HS2 and industry in general. Opened in 2023, the training hub provides apprenticeships in steel fixing and formwork and has provided training for over 30 local job seekers.

In addition to providing apprenticeships, HS2 also recruits graduates. This year, it is looking to recruit 30 digital engineering graduates to join its teams building stations, bridges, and viaducts, as well as graduates to work in its environment, finance, project management, project controls, procurement, digital analytics, asset management and commercial teams.

Balfour Beatty VINVI also runs a placement scheme for undergraduates where students from universities are given the chance to earn and gain work experience on HS2 in a specialist subject area during the holidays.

“The highlight of working on HS2 is being able to see first-hand the progress of the project. I’m taking in as much as possible – I’ve never worked on a construction site of this scale, and I was intrigued to see what it would be like!  “My colleagues are great, and I really enjoy working onsite. In the future, I’m looking forward to seeing the finished railway and being able to say that I helped to build it.”

Kordell Carty, Balfour Beatty VINCI apprentice