The housebuilder, which creates high-paid local jobs and apprenticeships as part of its developments, has recruited two apprentice joiners who will study at West Lothian College whilst learning on the developers’ sites.

Charlie Dunnett, 16 from Bathgate, and Ross MacPherson, 16 from Uphall, have begun their training at the college. The apprentices will be working on a variety of sites across West Lothian and Falkirk whilst studying at the college as they hone their craft.

West Lothian College is located in the centre of Livingston in the heart of Scotland’s central belt. The college is widely acknowledged as a successful, innovative, influential and collaborative college.

The college continues to be the top choice for school leavers for both further and higher education qualifications. Hundreds of senior pupils in West Lothian’s thirteen secondary schools take part in college courses each year alongside their school qualifications. Over a third of students are work-based, ie people in work who are completing qualifications to gain the required skills for their jobs or to progress onto promoted or different roles. This includes training around 500 apprentices each year, primarily in the built environment sector.

Ian MacPherson, Persimmon’s regional apprenticeship manager, said: “We’re delighted to formalise our partnership with West Lothian College with Charlie Dunnett and Ross MacPherson being our first apprentices in the college who will be studying at the Livingston campus.

“We pride ourselves on working closely with local construction colleges across the country to ensure that young people with the ambition and attitude needed to succeed in the industry are given a platform to do so locally.”

Steven Morrison, director of the Computing, Engineering and Built Environment faculty at West Lothian College, said: “One of the fastest growing areas in the college is our construction-related courses and apprenticeships. This directly mirrors demand from industry and partnerships with companies like Persimmons are really vital in meeting that demand. I have no doubt that Charlie and Ross will do well in their apprenticeships under the direction of our excellent lecturers, many of whom started as apprentices themselves.”

Persimmon works with a number of construction colleges across the country to ensure they can train local people as part of their numerous developments. Earlier in the year, the developer was joined by the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Jenny Gilruth MSP, to mark the 50,000th brick donated to construction colleges across Scotland.