HOUSING association Aster Group has recently recruited two new plumbing apprentices, including one in Andover, helping to kickstart their careers in the industry.

Following its recent apprenticeship assessment day held at Salisbury Rugby Football Club, Finn Belbin, from Andover and Rory Packwood, from Salisbury, were successful in joining the company’s Hampshire Planned Maintenance team as plumbing apprentices.

After applying for the roles, the pair joined 15 other candidates on the assessment day where they found out more about the apprenticeships available, took part in activities and team exercises and had the chance to speak with current and newly qualified apprentices.

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Rory and Finn were two of six candidates selected for interviews and both successfully joined the business at the beginning of September to officially start their journeys to becoming fully-qualified plumbers.

Rory said: “I wanted to start an apprenticeship with Aster because when I read more about the opportunities and company values on the website, I really felt like it would be a great place to learn and develop my career.

“When I found out I had been successful I was very happy. I’m looking forward to working towards my qualification to enable me to become more independent and manage my own jobs.”

Finn added: “I’ve always had an interest in plumbing and recognised that I didn’t want to further my education at university, so I felt like learning a trade was a good idea. I’m looking forward to learning and developing my plumbing skills whilst earning a wage.”

Aster Group chief transformation officer Rachel Credidio said the group are "wholly committed to supporting the next generation" of talent.

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She added: "Apprenticeships offer a fantastic opportunity to do just that. Not only do apprentices get to learn the skills necessary whilst on the job but they also get paid for the work in the process.

“Our apprenticeship programme enables people of all ages to learn and gain experience in a variety of roles across Aster each year.”

From 2015 to 2022 Aster has supported a total of 77 apprentices in completing their training and becoming fully qualified.