As an SME, you may be forgiven for thinking that, due to the prevailing circumstances surrounding the pandemic, our usual plans to support graduates (and others) into new roles and placements would have been mothballed. Not at all!

At Focus we have long prided ourselves on forging relationships with young talent from local educational establishments – and we’re glad to say this continues. Recently, it has required a lean towards remote-working combined with as much COVID-safe mentoring time as we can manage; requiring a little more patience and flexibility on the part of the successful candidates – but they ably rose to the challenge, impressing us with their enthusiasm and commitment.

Recent Appointments

Not only have we happily appointed three Graduate Sustainability Consultants this summer – Oyon Hussain, Leo Flockton and Kate Pumphrey, but the ASSESS team has gladly welcomed back a previous work experience student, Patrick Doyley – who first came to us via his school in Leicester, to assist with the busy domestic energy assessment services in between his studies.

It is not only our growing sustainability function that has benefitted from placements for local students; we were able to offer a summer internship to Calum Jackson within our Economic Development team (via the University of Nottingham’s scheme) and our surveyors are currently benefitting from the CAD skills of Yianni Kyriakou prior to his starting his MSc. In our London office we have been able to support Dumo Gumpo in a one-year QS undergraduate placement via our long-standing relationship with Nottingham Trent University.

We are very pleased to announce the appointment of a new QS, Sophie Neal, who will complete her NTU apprenticeship with Focus, plus 2 new apprentices within our London team – QS Hamza Bhatti and PM Kaelah Kavanagh who will be studying at Westminster University.

Why it works.

We feel these opportunities are highly beneficial for both parties. Focus benefits firstly by encouraging and receiving valuable input from the next generation of consultants and secondly, placements aid our wider recruitment strategy: offering long term positions to successful placement students and a structured career path for permanent hires. In turn, the candidate receives exposure to the working world, training suitable for their position and a supported taster of the constantly evolving construction industry.

Their words, not ours

If you won’t take our word for it, here’s what some of our recent student and graduate appointments have to say on the matter:

“Getting responsibility has been great…. seeing how the work feeds into actual reports.

The work itself is very interesting, working with real businesses, and contributing to funding programmes…..there was lots of diversity [with] a variety of tasks, no micro-managing.” Calum

“The opportunity to work on a wide variety of projects and learn from a such a friendly and dynamic team has been brilliant…. Focus have provided me with the training and support to begin a career as a Sustainability Consultant and I have already been given a significant amount of responsibility. I feel incredibly lucky to have been selected…..” Kate

“The staff are so welcoming…. They provided me correct training from the very first day and gave me plenty of time to finish my course. I am excited to progress in my field. There is something new to do every day here.” Oyon

“…Focus is a great place to work as a junior member of the team because you are always learning as well as having access to colleagues who have great experience … I have been able to gain a number of new skills [and] greater understanding of the role of a quantity surveyor… I am very glad I have been able to gain my experience at Focus.” Dumo

Working at Focus.