Engaging school leavers

Employees from Morgan Sindall Property Services and Social Enterprise BasWorx paid a visit to Woodlands School in Basildon to talk to their Year 9 and 10 students about career options in the construction industry.

Amy Ross, Community Gateway Manager spoke to the students about Morgan Sindall Property Services and BasWorx; encouraging them to think about the skill sets needed across a variety of roles within the industry. As well as trade based jobs, students was asked to consider other roles in the industry including Quantity Surveyor and Site Managers.

BasWorx trainees Liam Roberts and Mitchell Singleton also attended and shared their experiences with the group about the BasWorx programme and working with Morgan Sindall Property Services. They also stayed on to support the students with a tower build competition held towards the end of visit; the students were given A3 paper, sellotape and scissors and tasked to build a free standing tower with the tallest being the winner.

Mr Trevor Cain, Head of Construction at Woodlands School said: ‘Morgan Sindall’s approach to working with the school has offered our pupils a unique way of learning, putting their lessons into real life experience has help cement a passion to succeed. All pupils have expressed how enjoyable the day was and how excited they were of the opportunities that have been offered to them from Morgan Sindall. Woodlands School is looking forward to working with Morgan Sindall in the future.’

Amy Ross said: ‘It was a great day and the students seemed to really enjoy the class especially hearing from Liam and Mitchell on their experiences. It was very rewarding to see Liam (age 16) and Mitchell (age 17) engage with the students and acting as role models. Mitchell used to attend Woodlands school so it was all very familiar to him.’

‘Engaging with students at this particular time in their education is crucial. This is the exact point when they are thinking about their careers and what employment and further education opportunities are available to them. There are some fantastic programmes available now such as BasWorx that combine working and learning which is why it’s so important to engage with students so they are aware.’