Hooray for new starters!

Our new team members: (back to front row, l-r) Lisa Rogan, Judith Forster, talent manager Diane Charlton, Imran Zulfqar, Ed Cutler, David Owen and Andrew Wilson

_space group has doubled its graduate recruitment intake this year as it looks to supply the country with the next generation of architects.

The budding architects, who fought off stiff national competition for their placements, will work with us, across our offices in the North East, North West and Yorkshire.

Ed Cutler from Great Ayton, near Middlesbrough, has joined _space group after recently qualifying from the Manchester School of Architecture (MSA). He will now fulfil his part one qualification at _space group’s North West office.

He said: “I graduated from the MSA with a BA in July 2009, but was unable to find work, prompting a decision to take a Masters degree a couple of years earlier than planned. I am delighted to have been accepted onto _space group’s graduate recruitment programme, giving me the opportunity to further both my personal and professional development.

“Being part of a team working on exciting educational projects will really help me develop a range of skills that will hold me in good stead for the rest of my career. Not only am I looking forward to developing my experience in a working environment, but _space group has a great reputation for training its team members.”

The training will see the graduates work on live projects with senior architects, gaining a practical insight into architecture, alongside tailored seminars with _space group directors that expose the new starters to a wide variety of theoretical topics such as practice management and legislation.

The news comes as graduates are facing intense competition for jobs as the class of 2009 was rocked by the recession. According to gradplus.com, recruitment growth in the UK continued to slow in September this year.*

_space group talent manager Diane Charlton said: “Every year we look forward to welcoming the latest fresh young talent the UK has to offer and we have some excellent recruits this year.

“Training is something at the core of _space group’s principles – we are a company who want to provide as much opportunity to young talented individuals as possible, and our training programme is a great platform for them to shine. Our graduate programme also creates fantastic career opportunities. Some of our past training programme recruits have come back to work with us as qualified architects, and have become respected in the industry.”

A previous recruit onto _space group’s training programme was Carinna Gebhard. Carinna has now worked at the design, build and operate firm for a number of years, seeing her career expand into the education sector with a portfolio of high profile projects to her name.

The new recruits will complete the same in-house training as _space group chief executive Rob Charlton undertook 19 years ago when the organisation was known as Waring and Netts.

It almost goes without saying (but we're going to say it anyway) that we're thrilled to have been able to do this, and offer opportunities to the next decade's brilliant architectural minds! Watch this _space to see how they get on...