Willmott Dixon Interiors undertook an exciting challenge to help tackle youth unemployment.
Every year Willmott Dixon Interior’s management trainees are challenged to take on a community investment project. This year the trainees took a step up and really gave themselves a challenge by delivering workshops and training around construction skills and employability to unemployed young candidates from Construction Youth Trust with the aim to help increase there chances of employment in the industry.
This involved a week of skills based workshops including; team building, first aid training, fire marshal training, site health & safety, abestos awareness, motivation and leadership and employability skills workshop. A further two weeks were spent refurbishing Construction Youth’s Bermondsey training centre which allowed the young candidates to showcase their skills and learn from Willmott Dixon Interiors management trainees.
The refurbishments involved the following:
- Classrooms were repainted and more space created
- The hall, landing and stairwell were refurbished to create a better atmosphere for students using the building
- Male and female toilets were refurbished to improve the facilities for students
- Partition walls were put up between the workshops to allow the training centre to have three different courses running at the same time
- An employability hub was formed for young people with booths and computers to revise for CSCS examinations
- New offices for staff to use were developed
Overall the refurbishments helped to increase the training centres capacity by 50%, allowing Construction Youth Trust to take on more students.
To celebrate the achievements a graduation ceremony for the candidates took place on Friday 29th July where the 13 students aged between 16–26 were awarded their certificates by the Deputy Mayor of Southwark Cllr Charlie Smith. This programme also enabled the students to gain job opportunities from various industry trades.
About Construction Youth Trust
Construction Youth Trust is a charity helping young people in England and Wales to build better futures by giving them access to training education and employment opportunities in the construction industry.
Bermondsey deliver routes into construction programme specifically aimed at supporting young people to broader their insight into construction through hands on work experience and employment support.