Build Your Future

Grampian Construction Training is working with several key partners, to launch a series of construction, engineering and building services challenges, to highlight the varied and exciting careers within the sector to S2 pupils on the North-east of Scotland.

Key objectives of the challenge

• To position the construction industry as a buoyant, exciting and potentially lucrative sector to work in.
• To promote and celebrate success stories within the industry.
• To educate students, teachers and parents about the breadth of careers available within the industry.
• Pupils can only succeed by ‘contributing effectively’ in their team – each member of the team needs to contribute and work flexibly with one and other.
• Each activity is tailor made by the college and university lecturers to ensure participants can prove they are ‘successful learners’ – pupils have to display basic literacy and numeracy skills to use technology and think creatively in order to complete the task.
• In addition pupils display enthusiasm and excitement about the learning experience. Over the course of the activities it can be seen that ‘confident individuals’ begin to emerge – the ambition to compete successfully and the satisfaction on completion of the activities is evident.

This initiative, is based on a project that has been running very successfully in Edinburgh and the Lothians for over 20 years, will be the first of its kind in the North-east, and is a unique opportunity for educational institutes, training providers, industry associations and businesses to work together to achieve these objectives.

As a result of these groups working together, the costs of the challenge are covered, and the initiative comes at no cost to participating schools.

Across a six-month period, the 2019 competition enabled around 300 pupils (30 teams of 10) and 30 teachers to gain valuable experience and insight into these industries, through a list of group heats that have included:

Designing a sustainable city, using lock block to build a driveway, estimating and quantity surveying tasks, a plumbing challenge, building a tower on time, and under budget, to name only a few.

Last year's heats took place in October and November 2019 at colleges, universities and businesses throughout Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, giving pupils the opportunity to explore new learning environments, dispel any myths around what a career in construction looks like, and talk to staff and experts.

The challenge ended with a final one-day event in January 2020, where the ten top scoring teams were invited to take part in a series of fun but demanding challenges, with an overall winner announced at the end.

The Build Your Future challenge supports the STEM initiative and the Curriculum for Excellence

• Each activity is tailor made by the college and university lecturers to ensure participants can prove they are ‘successful learners’ – pupils have to display basic literacy and numeracy skills to use technology and think creatively in order to complete the task.
• In addition pupils display enthusiasm and excitement about the learning experience. Over the course of the activities it can be seen that ‘confident individuals’ begin to emerge – the ambition to compete successfully and the satisfaction on completion of the activities is evident.
• Each activity uses literacy and numeracy skills and supports teachers and pupils in providing an opportunity to explore choices and to make classroom learning relevant to the working world.

For more information on Build Your Future 2020/21 and to find out how you can support this initiative, please contact us on isla.stewart@mearns-gill.com