On Thursday, 9 July, HS2 announced that ten welding operative apprentices have started to work and learn on the high-speed rail programme.

The apprentices will be working with engineers who are building the viaducts that make up the last mile of the journey towards HS2’s Curzon Street Station in Birmingham – known as ‘the Curzon approaches’.

Construction employers are finding it difficult to recruit qualified welders, so Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV) and its subcontractors Martifer and AA Euro have instead set up apprenticeships where workers can learn welding skills and contribute to building HS2 and, beyond that, to other major infrastructure projects.

The companies advertised the vacancies at Jobcentre Plus sites across the West Midlands, including at the HS2 Recruitment Hub at Washwood Heath. By doing this, they aimed to ensure that local unemployed people had priority access to the apprenticeship opportunities.

14 of the people who applied were then invited to take part in a paid work trial lasting for ten days. All those who successfully completed the trial were offered a Level 2 apprenticeship. During the apprenticeship, they will study and work, and will have the opportunity to attain an industry-standard welding qualification.

Around 5,771 formerly unemployed people have obtained work on the project, which is more than its stated target of supporting five thousand jobseekers into work.

48-year-old Andrew Short, from Birmingham, is one of the new apprentices, and is one of six who joined through the HS2 Recruitment Hub in Washwood Heath, where the high-speed rail project has a depot.

“As a local resident, I’ve witnessed the positive impact HS2 is having in Birmingham. I don’t just mean the major viaducts that are springing up from the ground. It’s also providing local people with employment and opportunities to learn new skills. I’m one of those people who are benefitting from this iconic project, which I believe will come to define the city.”

Andrew Short, apprentice welder