Secondary school pupils visit Prince Philip Park
Pupils from Eggar’s School and The Petersfield School, in conjunction with the Future Skills Centre, visited the offices of the Whitehill & Bordon Regeneration Company and Taylor Wimpey’s Dukes Quarter development at Prince Philip Park, Bordon, to gain practical experience and learnings to support their studies.
The educational and productive visit saw each student undergo a site induction with Urban Regen before visiting a demolition site at Prince Philip Park. Discussion focused on the sites geography, the roles of the work force, the phases of demolition, and the purpose of sorting recycling materials with a focus on sustainability.
The students then went on to visit Taylor Wimpey’s Dukes Quarter development, where WBRC project manager, Bruce Collinson, gave the students a peak at the prepared ground works to the new leisure centre. They were also shown an example of drainage on site and given a talk on the ecology of the land along with the importance of pre-planning of utilities, roads and infrastructure.
Pupils were given the opportunity to see housing being built at various stages of construction and visit Taylor Wimpey’s apprenticeship zone, where they found out more about how much they could earn as an apprentice, what they would learn and how they could forge a career in construction.
Taylor Wimpey recently employed 6 new apprentices through its partnership with the Future Skills Centre, whilst the Future Skills Centre recently launched a new apprenticeship and skills provision for 14-16-year olds with Eggar’s School and The Petersfield School.
Steve Gilder, Manager of the Future Skills Centre commented “The pupils are six weeks into their Level 2 BTEC: Construction & the Built Environment, and the visit to site perfectly complemented the work they had completed so far regarding the construction sector. It was a great way to really bring relevance to their learning.
Naomi Metcalfe, Community Development Officer, WBRC, said:
“It is great to be able to offer pupils opportunities like this to learn and develop, from an education and practical perspective. The site visit was very successful and others are in the pipeline.”