When Ben Pritchard joined Howard Civil Engineering last summer, he was fresh out of university and eager to start his career in the construction industry.

Fast forward 14 months and Ben, 23, is now a fully-fledged quantity surveyor managing his own projects and workloads!

Ben attributes this new-found responsibility to the helpfulness of his colleague’s and Howard Civil Engineering ‘trust in younger people to get the job done.’

‘When I first started at Howard Civil Engineering, I didn’t feel like I was pressured to know anything,’ said Ben. ‘I was given a clean slate to work from and it’s always been clear that I could ask any question I wanted to. As a result, my progression here has actually surpassed the progression of my classmates who haven’t had the opportunities to manage their own projects despite working for a company for a longer period of time.’

Initially shadowing senior quantity surveyor Peter Farrar, Ben quickly got to grips with the responsibilities of his role on sites such as Skipton Road, Gateway 36 and Greengates Junction. Ben has since worked on around 20 sites, four of which he has managed by himself.

‘I feel like I’ve definitely got to grips with three of the four main areas of the business: roads and sewers, groundworks, and S278 and infrastructure,’ he explained. ‘I am currently working on three projects, including Leeds General Needs and Spa Fields, but I can’t wait to hopefully work on projects with reinforced concrete products in future.’

Ben is looking forward to starting his Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) next year which will enable him to qualify as a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), all of which is being funded by Howard Civil Engineering.

So, what would Ben say to other graduates hoping to make the most of their first job after university?

‘Ask a lot of questions!’ he laughed. ‘No question is a silly question. Keep working hard and it will get noticed.’