On Tuesday 6th July 2010, 20 students from Stoke Newington School in the borough of Hackney attended the Construction Careers Open House at 8build funded by the City of London Corporation and organized by Inspire.

Students spent a highly interactive day at 8build offices finding out about roles in a typical construction firm. 8build Director Andy Tooley, along with other staff members discussed their roles at 8build their specific educational career paths and what they love about their job.

Many of the students that took part are currently studying the BTEC First Certificate and Diploma in Construction, a new initiative being rolled out to provide vocational training.

To help the students get a better understanding of what a construction site is like, they were taken to a project for News International, where the students were given the task of finding and measuring certain areas of the site, to aid them with their orientation and plan reading skills, assets essential to working on a building site. This site visit gave them a great hands on approach to compliment their theoretical learning.

Paul Gredley Project Director at 8build said “I sensed we gave the students an insight into at least one aspect of construction (fit out) which may have caught their interest for the future, and their enthusiasm was a great reward.”