With funding from ISG, PLACED’s Partnership Academy programme delivered a 3-day workshop targeting 14-18-year-olds from Knowsley to promote the construction industry as an exciting and viable career pathway. ISG wanted to offer this opportunity in Knowsley as it’s a traditionally challenging area to engage with young people, with lower provisions and opportunities than other parts of Liverpool. The workshops took place at Court Hey Park Courtyard in Knowsley from the 30th of October till the 1st of November 2023 and involved a diverse range of activities aimed at highlighting different careers and skills needed within the construction industry.
We kicked off proceedings with an activity that saw the young people work in teams to build the tallest tower they could. They had 5 minutes to think through their approach/design, followed by a further 15 minutes to build the highest tower possible using the fewest materials. The winning team’s tower was incredibly well-designed and almost reached the ceiling! In their same teams, they then acted as a planning team for a construction company. Tasked to build a new school, they had to develop a ‘Programme of Works’, to ensure all construction tasks were undertaken at the right time and in the right sequence for the building to be completed within the schedule.
The construction industry is evolving and many common perceptions about working in the sector don’t apply today. So we gave the groups a selection of myths and common misconceptions and they had to find the ‘buster’ to disprove the outdated stereotype. This was a great way to demonstrate that the industry is so much more than just men in muddy boots. In their same groups, the young people were then tasked to build a Lego replica of the London City skyline. The challenge was to build it for the lowest possible cost in the shortest amount of time, aiming to illustrate that the price of materials can and will fluctuate and changeover the process of a build. We finished the first day with a presentation by Jayne Greaves from ISG who showcased possible routes into the construction industry through work experience to T-Levels, as well as degree apprenticeships.
We started day two by asking the young people to work in pairs to match the job titles with the job descriptions. Each job was related to the range of professionals supporting the day. Once they successfully matched the titles with the descriptions, they had to ask the range of professionals ‘yes/no’ questions to match the person to the job. This got everyone talking and gave the young people glimpses into the professionals jobs ahead of their presentations. We hosted nine professionals from across the sector from Senior Construction Managers to Graduate Project Managers, as well as Operations Managers and Commercial Managers. Each gave a 5-minute presentation covering who they work for, what their company does within the sector, and their career pathway. This was concluded by a follow-up Q&A for the young people to ask any and all questions to the professionals.
After the presentations we had the young people up circulating the room to complete the professionals’ bingo sheet which allowed them to continue to get to know them better through their answers. Afterwards, each professional was assigned to a pair of young people who had to interview one another, taking it in turns to be the ‘coach’ and the ‘candidate’. The coach asked questions to understand the skills of the candidate. They then narrowed down to two choices and from those choices, the coach described the jobs to the ‘candidate’. Once the candidate selected the job that appealed most to them, the job title was revealed. They then switch and repeat the process. When both candidates had their best-suited job, they were directed to ‘Go Construct’ to research their position, identifying the salary, hours, and career requirements to increase their understanding. Each young person shared their potential jobs, salaries, and skills with the rest of the group which started a larger discussion between the young people and the professionals. We finished the day by mixing young people and professionals into groups; each group was given a set of materials and was tasked with making half a bridge (the left or right side). However, they couldn’t see what the other group was doing. This proved to be a bit of a rollercoaster activity, the team that started out the strongest later faced problems matching their sides and the team who struggled with their design at the beginning went onto win, it was great!
We started the day off with a talk from John Burton, founder of Inside Connections, an organisation set up to support individuals with training opportunities in the labour market in order to provide a positive pathway into sustainable employment. The individuals they work with have experience in the Criminal Justice System and are either currently serving in a Category D establishment or have been released from custody. He captivated the room with his lived experience and gave lots of useful insights to the young people about choosing the right path and work hard for what they want.
We were then joined by Tiffany and Jess from Go Green who set a brief to the cohort asking them to think of the ways in which they could create a more sustainable building of their choosing. In groups they considered what the purpose of their building was, what were some of the ways in which they could make it more sustainable, what the challenges of creating a more sustainable building are and who would be involved and how. They created their buildings, one focused on an environmentally friendly café, including a community garden as well as utilising sustainable energy throughout the building. The other focused on an environment Academy which embedded environmental practices as well as included the lessons throughout the curriculum. Each group presented their ideas to the rest of the group and Go Green supporting staff.
The group of young people had we incredibly impressive, they were eager to learn and engaged throughout the entire three days. They showed real dedication to their futures by giving their time to bettering themselves over half term. All the professionals were very impressed by the knowledge and confidence they displayed throughout the programme. On the last day, one of the young women said “I’m 100% sure construction is the place for me!” which solidified it as a real success.
Thank you to all the young people who took part and many thanks to Jayne Greaves, Sinead Maloney, Annie Timmins, Andrew Wright, Chris Corrigan, Tiffany Anderson, Jess Newton, Leigh Palmer, Ruth Dinsdale, Scott Phillips, and John Burton for your support across the programme.