Trades4Care

Charlie: charlie.wright@trades4care.co.uk
Andrew: info@trades4care.co.uk
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Our Testimonials

Hear what our customers and students have to say about us.

Dehenna Davison MP

I have been fortunate enough to meet the Trades4Care team several times since becoming their Member of Parliament in 2019. Throughout the turbulence of the pandemic and cost of living crisis, the team at T4C have been unfailing in their dedication to the young people they support. I have only seen a small part of the work that Deborah, Andrew, and Charlie have carried out but even a glimpse demonstrates how special this organisation is. Young people come to Trades4Care with potential inside them waiting to be unlocked, and that is what they find – a supportive environment that allows them to do just that. To offer that to a single person is a special thing, to offer it to as many as Trades4Care has is nothing short of extraordinary and we are fortunate beyond words to have them working in our community

Rev. Graham A. Cutler

Just a note to say a sincere “Thank You” for the work done with your team from Trades4Care at Barnard Castle Methodist Church Hall. The training and positive encouragement of the young people was so refreshing to see, plus the standard of finish by your team is excellent.
Once again, on behalf of Barnard Castle Methodist Church please extend our gratitude to the young people and the leaders.

Cameron – T4C Apprentice

I really enjoy working for trades4care because it has given me the opportunity to see what goes on in my community. It has allowed me to engage with people from all walks of life and understand the challenges facing the community and how I can help. I have also gained confidence in my own work as well as the young people who join us on projects and become part of the team. Trades4care has been a huge help in my development as a member of the community and shown me that help is always there when you need it.

Ben Tinkler – Bridge Creative

It has been a fantastic experience working with Trades4Care over the past year. They carried out the painting and decorating of our new Centre of Social Enterprise in Bishop Auckland, working alongside some of our beneficiaries to teach them new skills. The team are very passionate about what they do, the quality of the work is amazing and they care about the communities they work with – going above and beyond to help, whilst supporting young people into employment. I can’t recommend Trades4Care highly enough.

Luke Moore – Student

I started working with Trades4Care at the end of my first year at Bishop College for a week. It was a very good experience and it was my first time properly working as a painter and decorator. I did several more jobs over the last 2 years. We did one at Raby Castle and also did some work at Stainton village Hall, then Woodhouse Community Centre (AYCC). It took some getting used to but with the support of Charlie and Nigel I got better and more confident as I went on.

Over the 2 years I received aid with my maths which helped me understand the more complicated equations in maths like percentages, Pythagoras and understanding fractions all this knowledge is going to help me pass maths this year.

I received a lot of support of Andrew Coxon with helping me create a good cv, how to talk in an work interview and what we might get asked in an interview. This has been very helpful as Andrew helped me create a cv for the job I have now so I thank him for that.

There are 2 things what made this experience much more worth it; one was helping the community and the people who live in my local area. It makes me feel better a person to help people who need it. The second thing was the good old fish and chip Friday’s that was brilliant. I really enjoyed everything I’ve done with them so far and I appreciate everything they’ve done for me and all my friends on my course too.

 

Megan – Student

I’d like to say thank you to Trades4Care for the opportunity to do my placement with them, without their encouragement and support I don’t think I would have ended up working full time in the job I love. They pushed me in the right direction and for that I will be forever grateful. More young people need access to this opportunity.

 

David Ross – Student

I have learnt a lot from going out with Trades4Care in both painting and decorating and mentally, I have gained confidence to speak to strangers and confidence in my skills. I have been on many of jobs which have pushed me past my limits and allowed me to grow and in a few weeks time I will be starting a job. I have to thank Trades4Care for the help as I can now be confident in my skills for when I start.

 

Christopher Connolly OBE - Whorlton Village Community Association

Whorlton Village community association employed Trades4Care to carry out a complete redecoration of the village hall in June 2023. T4C’s excellent reputation proceeded them and further consultation with previous customers had confirmed their suitability for this project. As well as providing valuable work experience to the young people involved, their reputation for quality work was well deserved and the end result was superb; the village hall is looking completely refreshed.

 

Under the watchful eye of Charlie and Nigel, with assistance from Gary, the young trainee team of Cameron, Alex, David, Josh and Jordan worked hard to meet not only the agreed workplan, but to exceed it. By the T4C team identifying additional issues and carefully managing time and Resources, the WVCA finished up with a far more complete package of work than had been originally foreseen, and all within the agreed budget.

 

I cannot recommend T4C enough. There can-do attitude and general professionalism is reflected right across the team, and it was a delight to see the young trainees learning and enjoying the on job experience. On behalf of the committee of the WVCA I wish them well in their endeavours.

Melanie Ingleson - Bookings Officer at Ingleton Village Hall

“I popped in a few times to see progress and was amazed at how quickly and efficiently they were all working together. I spoke to the young people involved and I was impressed with their work and enthusiasm. I would highly recommend Trades4care to any community looking to employ them for their work encouraging young people, giving them life skills as well as a useful trade so they can gain employment throughout their adult life.”

St Thomas’ Church Hall Redecoration
Thanks to Trades4Care and the excellent decorating students from Bishop Auckland College we now have a beautiful, light, bright and attractive community space. It was great to reopen the hall this week as COVID-19 restrictions relaxed, and we have had so many positive comments about
the new decoration from hall users.

The students were a huge credit to Bishop Auckland College and have done immaculate work. We are so grateful that they elected to give up the first week of their Easter holiday to get the job done. Managing to get the kitchen and vestibule decorated as well as both halls was a huge bonus.

I would be delighted to recommend Trades4Care to anybody – but I hope that you don’t get too busy because it would be great to have you and the young people back to do even more work! We are also grateful for the link to the Community Repaint scheme which helped to make the whole project even better value.

Mrs J Skirving - Headteacher

I have worked with and supported the Trades4Care Team in their new exciting venture since September 2018, when I was approached by Andrew and Charlie as the Head of Construction at Bishop Auckland College. We discussed Trades4Care and how this may support our young learners in work placement opportunities within the local community and wanted to help in any way possible. It was a fresh and exciting outlook on work placement, bringing our learners to the forefront, working with a professional team and gaining further skills to support them in looking for employment. Since this time, I have been part of their Steering Group and worked with the team engaging in their bespoke work placement programme, the first being the pilot at Butterwick Hospice where 4 of our Level 2 and 3 learners successfully took part in the project. This included an induction day, pricing up and costing the work, taking part in the placement and then evaluation sessions and CV writing. As a college we have visited each site whilst learners are on placement and ensured feedback from the work undertaken is of good standard from our learners. During the work undertaken as Stainton Village Hall the learners and myself took part in creating a short set of videos to promote the work Trades4Care do and how it has helped individuals to gain valuable experience before going onto find full time work or apprenticeships. During the academic year 2019/20 Trades4Care has grown and evolved and secured funding with both Bishop Auckland College and the Gaunless Gateway. Learners now receive a 2-day induction and are also paid £75.00 for their weeks work, which is a massive incentive for them. They have also continued to gain CV writing skills as well as, interview techniques and also an overall de-brief for learners to reflect and evaluate upon their own personal experiences. Marketing and Media has been exceptional for both Bishop Auckland College and Trades4Care with the local papers really getting behind the initiative, but stories have also appeared in the Northern Echo and more recently the FE Weekly. We hope to continue our links with Trades4Care and hope that they expand into other forms of the Construction Sector, to benefit both their company but us as a Further Education college in supporting young learners on their work experience and overall learning journey.

Sarah Haynes - Church Warden

We have had Trades4Care students working in our school for the last four weeks, they have been well mannered, hard working and have followed our COVID-19 risk assessment. The work they have carried out under the supervision of the trainers has been of a high quality and we will definitely be looking to use the services again.