Chris Baxter

I graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a degree in Quantity Surveying. I’ve always said that I learnt more on my year placement, during my third year, than I did in my entire first two years at University, so if I had my time again, I would have explored doing an apprenticeship and worked whilst carrying out my studies. There are lots of these initiatives in place now, but they weren’t so commonplace back when I was coming out of school.

My background as a QS has mostly been split between the Health and Education teams. Knowing I was delivering projects that would provide vital healthcare facilities including new A&E wards, new maternity / birthing units and mental health wards or new learning environments within Universities gave me great job satisfaction. I was also lucky enough to work on the refurbishment of a Grade 1 listed medieval boundary wall at Chethams School of Music, which was a hugely unique heritage project to be involved with.  

When I’m not working, I like to DJ, and I also spend time working with charities and community outreach programmes. Mental health in men is something which is close to my heart, and whilst over recent years, awareness has increased, especially around anxiety and depression, there is still a lot of work to be done to raise more awareness and improve services for mental health. Equally, I feel Homelessness is a real and growing social issue on the streets of Liverpool (and throughout the UK), I support local charities like Change and The Whitechapel Centre who are doing some great things within the city to make positive changes to people’s situations across the Merseyside region.