A Rochdale plasterer landed his dream job in his home town thanks to training received through J21.
John Faulkner, 28, from Shaw Street in Rochdale, is now completing his training as a plasterer with B Dobson & Son, and was made redundant from Federal Mogul when he decided to sign up to the scheme.
J21 enrolled John in a plastering course with the Manchester College of Arts and Technology (MANCAT) two years ago, and worked as a site labourer on Kingsway Business Park, before securing work as a trainee plasterer.
As part of his training, John teamed up with an experienced plasterer at B. Dobson & Son and has been taught a range of skills such as how to partition walls, plaster boards and make fibrous coving.
Once he completes the scheme he will be qualified at NVQ level 2 and will have received his Intermediate Construction Award in plastering.
He learnt about the scheme when the J21 Manager gave a talk at the factory where he used to work, and was later referred through his local job centre.
John said: “HMR and J21 have definitely given me a boost and without it I might have remained unemployed for a much longer period of time.
I also think it’s important that HMR is so dedicated to creating jobs locally as a lot of people are willing to better themselves, but they just haven’t had the opportunity to do so. Through the support of HMR and J21 I’ve been able to find myself a job that I really want to do.”