BAM provides a construction taster for three Sir William Stanier Community High School students

BAM Construction is a major UK-wide contractor and part of the Royal BAM Group, a worldwide construction services company that is currently completing the “Soccer City Stadium” in Johannesburg ready for the first World Cup game in June. A little nearer to home in the UK, a large BAM build is taking place at South Cheshire College, Crewe. Last September discussions took place between BAM and Education Business Plus about the possibility of work placements on the site for three students from Sir William Stanier School. Rotary NW who are the Mechanical and Electrical providers on this project, also teamed up with BAM to support this. They supported the interview process and provided two and a half days work experience for each of the students.

Students applying for the placements had to demonstrate a genuine interest in a career in the construction sector and had to complete a BAM application form, detailing their interests, aptitudes, and career plans. The final stage was for BAM and Rotary staff to interview and select three from the work experience hopefuls.

In December 2009, three Year 10 students were confirmed by BAM as meeting their requirements for the work experience placements. Penny Down, BAM Education Coordinator, planned a detailed timetable for each student, which involved the three placement participants spending time with a number of different staff on site, each carrying out a different but equally important job role.

The placement week started on March 8th. First item on the agenda for   Ross Garner, Aaron Wells and Jack Farrington was a thorough Health and Safety induction. Then the timetable swung into action as the students spent time with designers, planners, surveyors and site engineers, finding out about the part played by each for a building project of this size. Mr Andrews, construction teacher at Sir William Stanier came to visit the students and was very satisfied with the wide-ranging experience that his students were getting with BAM.

The students also told Education Business Plus what they thought about their placements:

“I like going on site and seeing how all the different roles come together”

“I like using the Auto CAD”

“I learned there were two types of architect – traditional and concept”

I’ve had to get up extra early!”

“BAM has been dead kind to us”

And yes – the placements had helped them all to think about careers within the sector and what they might want to focus on for the future

Ian Greener, Construction Manager said “The work placements are a good idea from a company point of view as BAM can promote itself to young people. It’s not just about the here and now. We need to think about recruiting our future workforce”

So with help from BAM, these three young men have been given careers help and also have been able to learn a whole range of things that you cannot learn in a classroom.

Penny Down (Education Coordinator for BAM) is very clear that working with schools is crucial to their success. The company is involved in supporting  education from nursery age upwards. Said Penny
“We feel that the skills we can share with students are highly valuable and provide useful training for them. When we engage with schools, our employees are always impressed with the response they get from the students. Both students and employees are genuinely inspired through the opportunities they have to learn from one another”