Dundee’s future young apprentices could play a key role in the construction of the city’s forthcoming £45 million V&A museum.
Tender notices to bid on the project will be issued later this week and the team behind the museum want to see what the winning bidder will offer the local economy in terms of employment and training.
Mike Galloway, director of city development at Dundee City Council, said: “We want to make sure Dundee firms get as much work as possible and as much of the workforce either by the main contractor or the subcontractor are from the Dundee area.
“We will require all the contractors to put forward proposals of how they are going to achieve that not just in terms of employing local people but also training local people.
“We will be looking for apprenticeships. This is a lengthy construction process and we could actually give school leavers a full apprenticeship right through the project.”
The tender documentation will be advertised across Europe after the council’s decision to grant the project planning permission. Interested parties’ submissions will then be brought down to a shortlist.
Mr Galloway said: “We would expect a great deal of interest from very large contractors.
“I would dearly love a Dundee firm to get that but we don’t have that many very big contractors in the city at present, as a result of the recession.
“It’s more likely that the biggest benefit for the Dundee economy will come from contractors from our city being subcontracted.
“I’m not sure if that is going to be the case. I may be surprised and somebody (from Dundee) could come forward and do it I would love to think so.”
The winning contractor is expected to be on-site early next summer, with the projected date for the main fabric of the building to be in place by the end of 2015.
The finished building should be open in 2016.
He said: “We have asked the budget surveyors on the design to take a totally realistic approach to estimating construction costs for this building.
“We have also employed consultants to check that and both of those experienced companies have advised us that the project is within budget.”
Philip Long, director of V&A at Dundee, said: “The project is entering a new phase, where within the next few months people will begin to see evidence of V&A at Dundee coming into being.”
The temporary infill of Craig Harbour beside RRS Discovery, which incorporates material from the former Maxwelltown multis and Tayside House, has already begun.
This will create a platform for work to begin on the Craig Harbour side of the building. The demolition of the former Olympia swimming pool, estimated to take 40 weeks, is scheduled to start next month.