SCOTTISH housebuilder Springfield Properties has announced apprentices now make up around one-fifth of its 477 staff – about double its 10 per cent target set less than three years ago.

Springfield’s 92 apprentices include 41 construction workers and 12 technical staff. The firm has 39 employees in modern apprenticeships. Taking into account another 18 staff undertaking college level education, in disciplines including architecture, business and marketing, the company notes 23 per cent of its employees are in education or training.

Springfield, which has offices in Elgin and Larbert, pledged to take on 16 more apprentices in the next year. This includes five apprentices from Castlebrae Community High School in Edinburgh, who will work on a development nearby in The Wisp.

Innes Smith, managing director of Springfield, said: “Like any industry you need a regular flow of workers to step up as others retire. By hiring apprentices, we are helping them develop skills, offering them a career, while ensuring skilled tradesmen for the future of housebuilding - it just makes sense.”

Connor Christie, who joined Springfield, as an apprentice bricklayer in October 2013 and is due to qualify this autumn, said: “During the recession, there was a lot of competition for work and I spent the next year sending off applications and doing all sorts of other jobs in the meantime, everything from landscaping to bar-tending.”

He added: “Unfortunately, I wasn’t successful in getting an apprenticeship at that point and was looking to go abroad and work in bars and ski resorts instead. It was at this point Springfield offered me an apprenticeship.

“Although I’d made other plans, I talked over my options with my family and I know I made the right choice to join Springfield.”