YEA stands for the Young Engineers Academy and this brilliant little organisation is based in Huddersfield in West Yorkshire.According to their website:

YEA is a recycling social enterprise helping young people start work. We assist them to develop the work place skills needed to become an asset to any employer. Our competence is in the dismantling of any product for reuse or recycling. We have plastic granulation & wood shredding capability on site.

YEA are staffed mainly by young people and is like a step ladder to help the next generation gain the skills, knowledge and confidence to go on into the industrial sector, in whatever industry that may be.

The organisation specialises in recycling old PVC and timber windows:

We organise onsite storage & collection of uPVC scrap. This includes post-consumer/industrial; windows, doors, conservatories & off-cuts from manufacturing. In-house, we dismantle these into separate waste materials & regrind the uPVC for reuse. Currently we collect from installers within the Yorkshire & Manchester regions or handle manufacturing volumes nationally.

Now strictly this isn’t a direct route for youth to get right into the fenestration sector. But as it says above, it primes young people to get them ready for a career in construction, of which fenestration is part of.

There are two things that stand out for me with a project like this. First, recycling. It’s great to see another eco-initiative engaging with the fenestration sector. I think that the wider industries are now starting to take much more notice of our sector and the importance it has to the overall construction sector. We’re not being seen as the younger irritating brother to mainstream building.

Secondly, the fact that this is a green project designed specifically just for young people. It is not long ago that I was saying that our industry needed some specially dedicated projects just for the young. Up to press there is very little out there which is geared towards getting young people trained from the ground up and readying them for a life in the various construction industries, including windows. So it’s great to see an environment created around windows with which young people are trained.

Whats more, I take a little pride out of the fact that this place is based in Huddersfield. West Yorkshire seems to be a hotbed of activity within the window sector and once again is has produced something we should be proud of and shouting about.

You can find more information about the Young Engineers Academy on their website: http://www.youngengineers.org.uk/ or follow them on Twitter: https://twitter.com/YEAUK