Building on careers with Wilmott Dixon
Last week, Bristol WORKS supported a group of young people in Years 10, 11 and Post 16 from Kingsweston School to meet and work with the team from Willmott Dixon to learn all about the world of Construction and Engineering. We ran two sessions with the team across the week that aimed to develop learner’s skillsets and showcase the variety of roles and projects that Willmott Dixon offer in Bristol and beyond!
To start us off, learners welcomed Willmott Dixon team members Alex and Will to their Napier Mile s school site. After a round of introductions, Alex showed students a range of buildings that Willmott Dixon had worked on and told us all about the importance of instilling sustainable building approaches when taking on new developments. Learners were introduced to a range of sustainable building methods that Willmott Dixon have used in the past, such as using solar panels, adding heat pumps and designing plant walls.
Alex then challenged our students to design their very own school! Their designs could be as interesting and creative as they wanted – but they had to include two sustainable building methods. We saw some brilliant ideas from students and designs included a skate park, a top of the range music suite as well as bat boxes, ponds and bug hotels! Alex and Will were very impressed with the innovative designs that were presented at the end of the session as well as the focus the learners gave in being sustainable and eco-focused.
To follow on from this session, learners were invited to see Willmott Dixon in action! On a chilly but sunny Friday morning, the same learners arrived at one of Wilmott Dixon’s current sites in Lawrence Western to meet some of the site staff and explore! We were welcomed by Will and Nicola, also part of the Willmott Dixon team, and they took us through the ins and outs of working on a construction site. We learnt about the importance of health and safety and were even given our own PPE to wear during the visit. Students were then invited to look around some of the houses that were being built at the site and meet some of the construction team, including Project Managers and Builders. It was brilliant to learn about what learners could do if they followed careers in construction and to hear about the benefits of working in such a busy industry.
Thank you so much to Willmott Dixon for providing two excellent workshops that provided valuable insights into careers in construction! Our learners loved it! Finally, a huge thank you to Kingsweston School and the students for attending and being so enthusiastic!