Pictured above: Recent Protégé recruits
working at Rider Levett Bucknall in Birmingham, Mike Thompson and
Tom Williams, with Rider Levett Bucknall chairman and founder of
Protégé, David Bucknall
The search is on for new graduate talent confirms Rider Levett
Bucknall (RLB), which this month begins assessments to find ten new
recruits to join its Protégé scheme and celebrates a
national roll out of the Birmingham born graduate recruitment
initiative.
Protege is the brain child of Rider Levett Bucknall chairman
David Bucknall, who worked with the property and construction's HR
team at its Millennium Point offices to create the scheme five
years ago. He remains an integral part of its annual process which
now operates across all seven RLB UK offices.
Careers on offer span quantity surveyors, building surveyors,
project managers and specialist advisors of the future.
Rider Levett Bucknall's commitment to its workforce has been
acknowledged by both The Telegraph and the Sunday Times. It ranks
in the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to work for 2011 and the
Telegraph with the CRF Institute voted the firm Number One in its
"Britain's Top Employers 2010" list. In addition, RLB has gained
Investors in People Gold Accreditation and is a best practice case
study.
Tom Williams, building surveyor at the Birmingham office joined
the firm in 2007 via Protégé. He said: "Over the last
five years, the Protégé scheme has created 21 jobs
for graduates.
"It is a great experience and although rigorous, it is a
fantastic opportunity packed with challenges. It's a great chance
to meet other young people in the industry and start networking
early on, not to mention to travel to one of Rider Levett
Bucknall's international offices."
The firm's acclaimed Protégé assessment scheme is
designed to test not only knowledge and aptitude, but skills such
as networking and problem solving to find the best talent in the
industry.
This year's competition has an added slant towards the role of
construction professionals in a changed market place. The
application questionnaire and assessments focus on the different
aspects of the construction professional's role as UK and Global
economies face change in both the public and private sectors
David Bucknall, chairman of Rider Levett Bucknall and head of
the judging panel added: "In times of economic uncertainty, talent
is often one of the first things to be lost, much to the detriment
of businesses. However, we're confident that maintaining the flow
of protégés into the company is the right thing to do
and will put us at a competitive advantage when the upturn begins.
We're delighted to be able to continue our commitment to nurturing
young talent in the city. "
A firm believer in promoting best practice, David believes that
it is not just businesses that benefit from recruiting graduates,
adding; "The city's professional community thrives on diversity and
benefits from the vibrancy that young professionals bring to
Birmingham. It's important that businesses do what they can to
ensure that skills are not lost in future."