Man moves back to Liverpool to give community chance he never had

Stephen Okoro left Liverpool due to a lack of job opportunities

A man has returned to Liverpool after 25 years in a bid to create job opportunities he never had.

Stephen Okoro, from Toxteth left Liverpool in 1996 and moved to London, aged 19, as he felt there was a lack of job opportunities for people in his community. On reaching London with a few GCSEs and a BTEC National Diploma from Riversdale Engineering College, he saw people like him progressing and doing jobs he did not see them doing in Liverpool.

The 47-year-old graduated as a quantity surveyor (2000) from London’s Westminster University. After working in London for over 20 years and two years in Leeds, Stephen moved back to Liverpool in 2021 as the owner of Bara Management who work in construction training.

Stephen told the ECHO: “Part of coming back to Liverpool was about creating that bridge for those who wanted to start a career in property construction and the built environment. As in, the built environment is what we live in and that’s what we shape.

“Within our training one of the things I wanted to do was to encourage people to come and get involved in this industry, because the opportunities are massive. Coming back I really saw a new Liverpool and many opportunities that I’m glad to meet with Simon (of Krol Corlett Construction), talk about what they do and what opportunities could exist within this industry.”

The first of Bara Management’s six week (one day a week) training courses began in February at Crawford House in Toxteth and was open to all people, but Bara encouraged applications from people from Black and minority backgrounds. The first course, ‘series one’, gave students an introduction to the structure of the property and construction industry exploring: building methods and techniques, health, safety and welfare and more.

On completion there was an option to do series two; for six weeks (one evening a week) of detailed training aiming to include on the job experience with firms. Stephen could then offer opportunities to young men and especially women from disadvantaged and underrepresented groups as he saw certain opportunities still did not exist in Liverpool.

After arranging for young people to meet with Simon from Krol Corlett Construction on May 2, Stephen said: “We hoped to introduce young people to prospective employers and raise aspirations, and it met the expectations of students. Simon contacted me after the event and informed me he’s contacted one of the attendees and offered Izaak aged 19 employment and another student has been offered a job”.

Izaak said: “I’m excited about starting a new role at Krol Corlett. Bara Management has been great for me, helping me to understand what it means to work in the construction industry.

“I aim to continue attending Bara training for support in my new job and career progression”.

Simon Krol (top) from Krol Corlett Construction meets with Bara Management trainees (IMAGE: Patrick Graham Liverpool ECHO)

Simon added: “I met Stephen a couple of weeks ago and he was talking about the same things I’ve been talking about for a long time, so it was good to meet. There seems to be a lot of synergy with ourselves and Stephen, and particularly while we’re (working) in the community it seems like a good time to do something together.

“We have two types of apprentices. We have tradespeople; we train joiners, they go to college one day per week and four days with us.

“We also do technical apprenticeships, we train quantity surveyors in the office so that’s like a modern apprenticeship. For me it’s a good method of training young people without being full time in university; you’re four days in the office with a living and breathing construction company”.

Simon is not opposed to people going to university, but this type of training creates different pathways into the industry when university may not be a financial option. Krol Corlett will look at CV’s of participants from Stephen’s training to see if they can “offer experiences to help them increase opportunities”.

Bara trainee Louis, 28, said: “I’ve no background in construction and started the foundation course. With advice from Stephen and what I’m learning I will hopefully go onto quantity surveying, where I found my interest.

“Stephen said he does see potential and I need to learn a bit more. Hopefully with his guidance I can do so”.

There to support a young person Sheldon Griffiths, outreach worker and intensive mentor from Merseyside Youth Association said: “I want tangible outcomes; to see a route and way for some of our young people, specifically marginalised groups to get experience and potentially careers out of this opportunity. We need to sit face to face like this (event) where we can demystify the construction industry.

“With Simon giving up his time today they can visualise, realise and see themselves in that opportunity, as they don’t see anybody doing that, that they know”.

For information on Bara Management Training visit HERE