Val has over 20 years experience of the Construction Industry.
For the past ten years she has created partnerships with the public sector to enable local people with barriers to employment access sustainable construction jobs through employer led training.
Val created the Job Shop at Bluewater in partnership with Job Centreplus in 1996 which resulted in nearly 4000 local people (including serving prisoners from Kent prisons)get jobs and training in construction. This pioneering model has now been transferred many times and still thrives at Bluewater as The Bluewater Learning Shop.
Val has recently created Be Onsite, a Bovis Lend Lease (BLL) founded not-for-profit that will consolidate and sustain BLL’s collaborative approach to ensure industry gets the skills it needs, individuals gain sustainable careers, meeting the aspirations of Government and the communities in which we work.
Val is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, represents construction on the Department of Employment and Pension’s London Employer Coalition, and chairs the London Regional National Skills Academy Partnership. She is a member of the Corporate Alliance and the Cross Industry Construction Apprenticeships Task Force.
