A blog by Morgan Sindall Construction for South Asian Heritage Month 2023

We thought long and hard about how we wanted to celebrate SAHM through this bold series of blogs and articles, and fitting with this year’s theme of ‘stories to tell,’ here are the stories of two of our employees: Hamza Ali, a trainee design manager, and Abuzar Muhammed, a trainee planner.

I am Hamza Ali, 24, from Oldham and work for Morgan Sindall as a Trainee Design Manager.

I have a degree in civil engineering from the University of Salford but struggled to find work after graduating.

I then found out that the Greensville Trust Islamic Faith Community Centre in Bradford had started an initiative with Morgan Sindall Construction to get more people from a Muslim background into construction and I successfully interviewed. It was initially a sixth month placement, but I’ve just been made full time.

In my role, every day is different – there is always something new to do. Day to day, I shadow our design managers on a big new project we’re working on in Wakefield.

I enjoy problem solving and coming up with solutions to issues colleagues might be having. It is brilliant working alongside people with 20- or 30-years’ experience and learning from them.

Morgan Sindall invited me to spend a week or two on placements with architects and engineers to help me understand how consultants work with contractors. Being from a civil engineering background, I’d not seen the work consultants do up close, but it’s been a great insight into how they support our projects.

At first I was a bit nervous, but once you start getting to know people, it’s fine. My commute from Oldham is a trek but I still look forward to it because I like the job. You start to build a connection with the staff – you learn you can have more in common with people of a different background than you’d thought. It just takes time to build a relationship.

To attract more individuals from a South Asian Heritage into Morgan Sindall, we need to keep working with organisations like the Greensville Trust and show there is interest from construction in attracting Muslims and people of South Asian heritage to work in the sector.

I think construction and the South Asian community are still in the stage of breaking boundaries and getting to know each other, but once we’re past that stage, we’ll start to see more diversity.

Everybody thinks it's just manual labour on-site and maybe not always in a pleasant environment, but that’s just not the case. There are many office roles or opportunities for hybrid working. I can work from home if required, and it’s great Morgan Sindall are so flexible.

I don’t think construction is how it was 25 years ago when there weren’t many South Asians employed – I have seen people up and down the country from my background. One of the main things is experience – if employers do more programmes like the one I went through, more people will enter the industry.

My future goals and aspirations are to continue learning from experienced design managers and eventually be given my own project to run and take it from there.

I am Abuzar Muhammad, 19, from Bradford and I am a Trainee Planner.

I went to university for six months to study Business and Accounting, however I found it too theoretical as I’m more of a practical person.

In Bradford there’s an Islamic community centre called the Greensville Trust where I go once a week to read Friday prayer. One time, there was a fundraiser on and Morgan Sindall had a stall where they were promoting opportunities with the business. I took it from there and was accepted on the apprenticeship.

Since joining Morgan Sindall, I’ve been on rotation and sat in every department and had the opportunity to have a taste of each area. It’s been great getting involved in projects such as Outwood Academy and Springwell Gardens - a huge development in Leeds that has amazing views of the city. It is surreal watching it get created.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet different people from across the country. Finding out about their different roles has been very interesting, and some of the people I've been shadowing are the best in the industry.

Since joining Morgan Sindall, I’ve seen things are different than I expected. There are a lot more women working on sites, which is a good thing. When I first joined, I was one of the only people of an Asian background in the office and I had never been in that situation before. However, everyone’s been brilliant and made me feel at home since I started work here.

To attract more individuals from South Asian Heritage we need to host more community events. This is important to get more exposure. People didn't expect to see a construction firm at a fundraiser, but it was a brilliant idea - I didn’t think I’d think about my future career at a fundraiser!

In order to break down barriers about the industry, we need to educate people about how diverse the industry actually is. I think what happens is people think it's as simple as just manual labour – there's a lot more that goes into it, a lot of science, especially for sustainability. It takes so many people to get a project moving. It’s a big misconception that it’s just bricklaying.

My long-term ambition is to stay at Morgan Sindall as long as possible. I want to build a career here and stay here, become a planner, and progress as much as I can within the company.