This section reviews our activities in support of our Now or Never ambition to help more than 1,000 people into employment by 2030. We focus on people furthest from the job market — removing barriers, building skills and creating long-term careers with us, our supply chain and across the industry.
In 2025, we supported 30 people into sustainable employment, seven directly with Willmott Dixon. Over 1,000 people took part in our social value programmes, with 91% saying these activities had a high impact on their lives.
Supporting young people
We work with schools and colleges, providing practical STEM programmes, mentoring, apprenticeships, and work experience.
In 2025, over 11,000 people attended our workshops. We offered 579 weeks of work experience and delivered 900 mock interviews to boost employability for people living locally to our projects and offices.
Working with schools and colleges to attract the next generation into construction
Willmott Dixon is a leading builder of schools and colleges having delivered 30,000 new school places in the past five years alone in England and Wales. Our projects regularly welcome local schools to explore the built environment and raise the profile of construction careers.
At Brookside Primary School, students visiting the site of Thames Valley Police's new HQ created artwork to be displayed in the building when it opens in Spring 2026.
Alongside our Cheadle College project, 261 weeks of work were carried out by apprentices, and 50 weeks of work experience placements were hosted for students.
A week-long careers challenge in Birmingham and Nottingham saw 24 students develop a sustainable leisure centre bid, supported by specialist teams and site visits. Participant Guy Okwesa said: "As they invite people from a range of backgrounds, you learn new things from new people. The site visit was extremely insightful."
At Mosslands School's World of Work Day, in Merseyside, 160 young people were introduced to construction careers through interactive workshops. Headteacher Adrian Whiteley said: "Our students left feeling inspired and with greater confidence in themselves."
Students from Bridgend on the BCA Construction Programme took part in a plumbing masterclass with F P Hurley & Sons, with more than half reporting increased interest in a plumbing career (right).
In November, we began a 12-month pilot with Black Professionals in Construction's (BPIC) social enterprise, Building Professionals, to create long-term employment pathways for underrepresented groups, with ambitions to place graduates across London projects and supply chain in 2026.
T Levels
Industry engagement is crucial to effective T Level delivery, and we take pride in offering placements that give students practical experience of construction careers.
In 2025, we delivered 386 weeks of T Level placements across England and Wales.
Jack Brinkler, a second-year T Level student at West Notts College in Mansfield, joined the Bulwell Town Regeneration Project in 2025.
“I have learned lots of valuable skills as well as different experiences which you can’t get in the classroom,” said Jack.
Our Interiors business partnered with Westminster Kingsway College to welcome six T Level students for a comprehensive 45-day placement. The students rotated across different departments – project management, sustainability, health and safety and digital construction – to ensure they gained maximum exposure to the industry.
Our £48.8m redevelopment at Wigan & Leigh College is also helping support skills development in the borough. To date, we have supported 15 T Level learners, hosted three industry placements plus two employer-led projects supporting a further 12 students to complete course requirements. These pathways are translating into sustained employment: former T Level learner Millie Simms (right) is now on a degree design apprenticeship with Willmott Dixon, and current apprentice Jacob Heavens is progressing on the project.
Working with local supply chain partners, we have created two new jobs for Wigan residents and contributed 106 volunteering hours across the college and local schools.
"I thrive when I can apply my skills to practical tasks," says Millie. "The apprenticeship has built my confidence and communication day by day."
During 2026 we will progress three innovative college partnerships that allow even more students experience in construction, supporting over 100 more T level students on their learning journey.
Employment and training for those who face barriers to employment in construction.
We work with adults furthest from the labour market to help them find rewarding careers.
We are a signatory of the Social Mobility Pledge, upskilling and reskilling local people to improve their social mobility is key to the positive lasting legacy we want to leave for the communities around our projects.
Building Lives Academies
Willmott Dixon operates Building Lives Academies to provide training and employment opportunities to local residents, particularly young people aged 16-25, often with a focus on sustainable construction skills.
Our Building Lives Academies provide practical construction training, hands-on experience and employability support — CV writing, job searching and interview coaching — in a flexible framework tailored to local need.
Alongside our Willmott Dixon Interiors project at 200 Buckingham Palace Road, we partnered with Westminster Adult Education Service (WAES) to deliver on-site construction training for unemployed local residents. Sixteen individuals completed key qualifications — including Level 1 Health and Safety, Employability Certificates and their CSCS card — and gained real-world experience on a live project.
One participant said: "Meeting real construction people has really helped me to see what the industry is like and where I could be in a few years."
In Torbay, we helped launch Foundations for Work, a new programme with Build Torbay and the DWP designed to support economically inactive residents into jobs or training
In Wales, following the Building Lives Academy programme in Caerphilly (right), we worked with an individual, M — who had been unemployed for six months with an expired CSCS card. M was supported by the Caerphilly Employment Team and Maximus to renew qualifications and retrain. They joined Willmott Dixon as a general operative on the Oakdale project.
"Door after door had been closed. The support I got to renew my CSCS and get work so close to home was more than I expected. This is my community and now I'm part of something that will be here for years to come." - M.
Supporting prison communities
We continued our commitment to offering prisoners pathways into meaningful careers through Drylining Academies at HMP Lincoln, HMP Elmley, HMP Belmarsh and HMP Cardiff, providing training to NVQ Level 2 with post-release employment opportunities supported by supply chain partners.
Alongside the 200 Buckingham Palace Road project, we donated doors and a kitchen to HMP Downview to support their construction programme.
At HMP Moorlands Jobs Fair, our team met around 25 individuals preparing for release, offering employment advice and insights into construction careers. As Assistant Social Value Manager Rowan Todd noted: “Securing employment within six months of leaving prison is proven to significantly reduce reoffending rates — so this work truly makes a difference.”
Supporting women into construction
As part of our commitment to uplift and upskill local communities, we champion the role of women in construction.
Compared to an industry average of around 14%, at Willmott Dixon, women made up over one third of our workforce at the end of 2025 – more detail can be found in our ‘Our People’ section.
We work to empower women in the communities around our projects, supporting them to explore careers in the construction sector.
Around our Derriford project, Social Value Manager Daffne Aguilar delivered the first SEND session at Notre Dame School as part of the Building Plymouth 'Adopt a School' initiative, supporting 15 female students from diverse backgrounds through a construction careers workshop (right).
Across Bridgend and Swansea, our teams supported CITB Women in Construction events where secondary pupils tried virtual spraying and practical workshops - demystifying technical roles and encouraging more young women to consider a future in the industry.
Supporting people with disabilities
As a disability confident employer, we support people with disabilities to overcome barriers to employment and tackle workforce inequality.
One major barrier can be the lack of meaningful careers education for SEND students. We work with SEND schools to deliver workshops and create pathways into construction, ensuring talent and potential are not overlooked.
Local students with additional learning needs from SGS College visited site of the new Kingfisher facility at Blackberry Hill, Bristol, to gain insight into careers in construction. Across two days, students were given guided tours of the live site by project leads Willmott Dixon and had the opportunity to speak with a range of professionals about their roles and career pathways.
The visit also included a hands‑on bricklaying masterclass led by JG Bricklaying, as well as a supervised opportunity to observe crane operations from the roof. For many of the students, the experience provided rare and valuable exposure to a live workplace, helping them to better understand the breadth of opportunities within the construction industry.
To conclude their visit, students signed their names into the steel beams of The Kingfisher — a lasting reminder of their involvement in a project that will become a specialist mental health facility for people with learning disabilities and autistic people when it opens in 2026.
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At All Saints Primary School in Marple - where we are building a £20m community hub for Stockport Council - we run a free after-school Construction Club for neurodiverse children in years 2 to 6 who may not otherwise access after-school activities.
We also supported ALN students through mock interviews, reverse jobs fairs and skills workshops. At the Princess of Wales Hospital's ALN Reverse Jobs Fair, students on supported internships showcased their strengths and aspirations, allowing our teams to better understand and actively support their pathways into work.
We donated ten laptops to the Hive, Thanet, the UK’s first national bespoke, fully accessible training, recreation and learning centre for children, young people and adults with special educational needs and/or disabilities (right). In addition to supporting individuals with SEND, The Hive also provides invaluable support to their families, friends and carers, strengthening the wider community around them.
At Woodlands SEN School in Luton, a five-week Eco Village project introduced students to sustainability and construction through interactive workshops.
"Engagements with employers like Willmott Dixon help our students understand and prepare for the world of work. Our students face many barriers, but this kind of committed support makes a huge difference."
- Careers Co-ordinator Lee Nelson, Woodlands SEN School.
Supporting our Armed Forces
In 2025 we received the Gold Award in the Ministry of Defence’s Employer Recognition Scheme - the highest accolade for organisations supporting the armed forces community.
The ‘gold level’ commitment reflects our real support, including 34 weeks of work experience provided leading to eight new hires delivered through our partnership with BuildForce and engagement with the Career Transition Partnership to help service leavers transition successfully into civilian roles.
Internally, we strengthened our support with 10 days’ additional paid leave for reservists and continued the work of our Armed Forces Affinity Group, which supports colleagues from military families and helps new starters settle into the business.
On site, our teams bring this commitment to life with career transition support and work experience, as seen at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and currently at Kendrew Barracks, where structured placements and mentoring have opened routes into long term careers.