North-Tyneside based, Carney Consultancy signals plans for expansion as it launches a graduate recruitment scheme.
Aimed at attracting the next generation of health and safety consultants, the company will hire a graduate for Carney Consultancy and its sister company, Carney CDM.
Established in 2002, Carney Consultancy specialises in construction and engineering, providing health and safety consultancy and training. Team members come from a main contracting and subcontracting background and have worked, as consultants, with some of the North East’s main companies.
The graduate recruitment scheme follows a positive first quarter with increased growth and a strong forward order book. In the last two years, the company, led by managing director, Angela Carney and directors, Martin Crammond and David Wadds, has seen turnover surge by 64 per cent following a 22 per cent increase in retained clients.
As senior vice president of Northern Counties Builders Federation (NCBF), a board member of both Constructing Excellence North East (CENE) and the regional branch of the National Association of Women in Construction, Angela Carney is known throughout the industry as a passionate advocate of helping to raise the profile and image of the construction sector so that it attracts more young people and women into the sector.
Most recently, Angela and Northern Counties Builders Federation has helped to relaunch the North East Schools Wonder Challenge in which schools within the NELEP areas of Tyne & Wear, Northumberland and Durham to challenge year 9 and 10 students to form mini construction companies.
The NCBF is also working closely with colleges across the region to connect employers with trade students who are looking to take their first steps into the world of work.
Angela said: “Having spent 20 years laying solid foundations to Carney Consultancy, my aim is to allow the next generation of directors to build the business for their next generation. For me, it is about leaving a legacy to ensure continued investment in the training and development of future generations.
“I’m proud that we invest heavily in the development of our team. Our senior health and safety consultant, Sarah James, is an example of this. Before she came to us, Sarah was struggling to get her previous employer to invest in her training. After four years with us she achieved NEBOSH Certificate and Diploma, NVQ Level 6, Chartered membership status with IOSH, as well as doubling her joining salary. Sarah has now been given a fantastic career opportunity which could take her all over the globe. We could never offer her that currently, so she can now take this new role with confidence in her technical and competence as a health and safety professional, due to our investment in her.
“Over the next five years, we have a recruitment plan to increase the number of women in our technical roles. Currently, we have five male and six female consultants. Our consultants have all been trained from scratch and that’s always been our strategy, to ensure we develop people to reach the potential they often can’t see, but we can.
“If we don’t proactively start changing our image as an industry we will struggle to recruit more people. The training and attracting of new people must start with employers training more people from scratch. This means investing time and money.
“There are some fabulous companies out there already doing this and while we all, at times, need to recruit established, experienced people, we need all companies to participate in attracting and training more new people and having a detailed training programme for trainees and apprentices, so they are involved in their own career path.”
