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Group of students taking part in a site visit

Morgan Sindall Construction helping shape the next generation of construction professionals

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Morgan Sindall Construction’s Northern Home Counties team is working closely with the Class of Your Own ‘Adopt a School’ programme, to assist in training the next generation of built environment professionals at Aldenham School, Hertfordshire.

The ‘Adopt a School’ programme is a collaboration between industry and academia, which provides training for students interested in exploring a career in construction.

Morgan Sindall Construction is now in the second year of a two year programme of support for Aldenham School, during which the company has engaged with children in a number of activities – including site visits, and live classrooms engagement activities, which took place prior to the Covid:19 outbreak.

The programme has also helped to provide funding for a Design Engineer Construct! (DEC) teacher to train a class of students at the school in the skills and knowledge needed to start to explore a career in construction.

The initiative is part of Morgan Sindall Construction’s wider focus on helping to bridge the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skills gap and creating a positive lasting legacy for the built environment sector in the region.

Morgan Sindall Construction is working closely with teachers at the college to build on and enrich the school curriculum and will be inviting students to take part in a series of virtual engagement activities through its Virtual Work Experience programme to enhance their knowledge of the sector.

Prior to lockdown, the students visited the major redevelopment site, Civic Centre Opportunities Site (CCOS), which Morgan Sindall Construction is delivering in St Albans.

The £34 million scheme, which has been procured via the Pagabo National Framework for Major Construction Works, offered the opportunity for children to gain practical experience of a large-scale construction site and the many jobs the sector offers.

David Rowsell, area director at Morgan Sindall Construction, said: “The Adopt a School scheme is playing an essential part in providing students with invaluable, real-world knowledge and experience that will help them develop a career within the construction sector. We believe this will help to bridge the skills gap and ignite enthusiasm and passion in the next generation who may be considering exploring the huge breadth of various roles and a career in the built environment.
Morgan Sindall Construction is dedicated to helping engage and inspire students into the construction industry and the many rewarding opportunities it can open up for them, and we are delighted to be sponsoring Aldenham School over the course of the next academic year.”
Tony Riley, a maths teacher at the school, said: “We were delighted that a senior site manager from Morgan Sindall Construction was able to visit us, share images and design details of their new site, and examine our own designs.
“We also found the visit to their site in St Albans extremely informative, even at the very start of the building process and it was fascinating to understand the speed and complexity of the earth removal.”

The DEC course looks to bridge the gap in construction-based skills by providing students enrolled with a Level 1 to 3 qualification in the built environment, building on their current curriculum knowledge.

The course requires students to demonstrate strong maths and literacy skills - providing them with clear examples of how these important skills are applied in a work environment, through reports, presentations, and written content which is presented to industry specialists for assessment.
Many of the students undertaking the DEC programme aspire to go to University, either via the traditional full-time route, or part-time via a recognised employer/apprenticeship scheme.