As part of our efforts to support National Apprenticeship Week, Matt Breakwell, Grace Roberts and Niamh Smith spent the day at South Wirral High School delivering a STEM day to 160 year 8 students.
As a former South Wirral High School student, Grace got a fantastic welcome after being introduced by the school’s Careers Champion and we set them to task.
We started by explaining what Kimpton do (Commercial Plumbing, Heating and Electrics) the kind of projects we work on and the pathways to a construction career via an apprenticeship.
We explained what a skills shortage is, how that means that Building Services Engineering pays great wages, and that we’re looking for the next generation of Engineers to join the frontline in the race to net zero!
We then explained the various renewable technologies we install to make buildings more sustainable, from Solar PV and Heat Pumps to Rainwater Harvesting and Sensor Taps, and asked them to build a model of a sustainable school using as many technologies as possible.
The results were brilliant – in addition to the technologies we’d talked about, we had bee hives, electric buses, vegetable gardens and even a horse pond.
If we’re going to encourage enough young people into our industry, and diversify our workforce, we have to start in schools. By the time we’re recruiting 18 year olds from vocational colleges, the die is cast.
Also, the perception that our industry is all “men and muddy boots” persists and we need to make both teachers and students aware of the range of roles available. Niamh had never been told what a Bid Writer was and Grace had certainly never heard of a Mechanical Estimator before they joined Kimpton.
Kimpton are working with the Liverpool City Region Careers Hub and other local employers, to support schools to deliver better careers education and more inclusive work experience through the Equalex pilot.
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