Promoting Careers in Construction

Construction Site Visits Give Pupils Insight Into a Future Career

We recently had the pleasure of hosting a group of year 10 pupils from Hanham Woods Academy, providing them with a view of the options that a career in construction can provide.

The morning began with a visit to Shield’s head office in Bristol, where the pupils were spoken to by our Chairman, Luke House, Scaffolding Managing Director, Jamie Angell and our SHEQ Advisor, Will Graham. The pupils were also taken on a tour of our offices, meeting team members from every department and hearing details of the function, and crucially their own story of how they got into construction.

After a short breakfast break, the pupils received their PPE, had a safety briefing and were provided with detail of what to expect on the second part of their day, a site visit to the Crescent Centre in Bristol, a live construction site operated by our key client, Kier Group.

Once transferred to the site, the pupils received a great presentation from Kier’s Sophie Thomas, on the Cresent and the aims of the site team in delivering a state-of-the-art, city centre accommodation development. There then followed a tour of the site, where the pupils heard from Kier’s Paul Mrozek, Tyler Field and Joe Lansbury, and got to experience first-hand what it felt like to climb the Shield scaffolding structure and see the truss-out construction that is facilitating a crucial structural element of the building’s extension.

Having completed the tour, the pupils then heard from Kier’s Emma Higgs on the different roles at the site and how a career in construction is accessible, finishing with a mock-interview session.

Reflecting on the success of the day Shield Services Group Chairman, Luke House, commented, “It’s been a great day, seeing this group of lads come out of their shells and speak openly and honestly about their aspirations, and seeing them engage with so many people across both our offices and at the Crescent site. I have to say that Kier has been a wonderful host and so accommodating. I was really impressed by their presentations, and I can’t thank Kier’s Senior Project Manager, Martin Symonds and his team enough. I know that this will have changed the way that our industry is viewed by this group, and one of them has already asked if he can come and get some work experience with us over the summer. It’s just brilliant.”