At West Midlands Interchange, we’re dedicated to nurturing the next generation of engineers and construction professionals. We believe that STEM education is crucial for building a brighter future, and we’re committed to providing opportunities for young people in our region to explore the endless opportunity in this exciting field.

Our Impact in Numbers

Here’s a glimpse of what we’ve been able to offer our local community so far:

• 132 weeks of apprenticeships or T-Levels (Level 2,3, or 4) surpassing our target of 33.7 weeks by 292%!
• Over 18 weeks of training opportunities (BTEC, City & Guilds, NVQ, HNC – Level 2,3, or 4+ in fields like Quantity Surveying, Construction Management and Civil Engineering) surpassing our target of 15 weeks by 25%
• Over 61 hours spent visiting local schools and colleges
• 30 weeks of apprenticeships for disadvantaged groups

Engaging with Schools and Colleges

We’ve been actively collaborating with schools and colleges that are both local to site and in most need of support, to ensure young people are given access and knowledge of the exciting career opportunities within STEM. Here’s a glimpse into some of our recent initiatives:

Codsall Community High School

Our construction partner, Winvic, is part of Codsall Community High School’s Employer Engagement network, sharing employer insight and providing exciting opportunities for students, including employability sessions, site visits, and work experience/T Level placements. We also shared ideas with the school on how best to support students’ personal career goals.

South Staffordshire College

We recently visited South Staffordshire College, Cannock College campus to host a day of employer talks, sharing real-life insights into the world of construction, discussing the lifecycle of a major project like West Midlands Interchange. From concept to completion, we explored the various career opportunities available within the industry, including the breadth of main contractor roles and trade roles including carpentry, joinery, and bricklaying linked to the students course.

Walsall College

Following the success of last year’s cohort, we invited the 2024 intake of T Level Design, Surveying and  Planning students to take part in the Winvic Enrichment Programme. The programme provides students with an insight and introduction into the various disciplines covered as part of the T Level. This includes an introduction to surveying (both quantity surveying and engineering with an introduction to surveying equipment used), construction planning and design.

The students toured the site, learned about environmental sustainability, project management, and took part in career-building and CV workshops.

Tim Wilkes, Senior Environmental Manager said: “It was great to deliver a specific environmental session to Walsall College T Level students as part of Winvic’s Enrichment Programme at WMI. With WMI having an extensive dewatering plan in place, it was good to be able to provide the students with an insight into the water treatment process along with covering a broad range of environmental factors including biodiversity and waste.”

Careers Lead Encounter Day

In November, the WMI project hosted six careers leads from local schools/colleges providing an insight into different careers within construction. The aim of the day was to equip the careers leads with information around construction roles, insight into a typical day, pathways and skills required to take back and incorporate into the curriculum and pass this knowledge onto the students in career sessions etc.

The event covered a range of roles including short deep dives into Engineering, Construction Planning, Quantity Surveying, Design and an insight from CBRE on Town Planning and Sustainable development.

We look forward to the follow up session over the coming months to see how the information learnt on the encounter has been used by the schools.

Talking about the event, Staffordshire University Academies said: “Thank you for the Careers Lead Encounter meeting, it was a brilliant insight into the industry and gave me a lot of information I can share with staff, parents and students.”

Emma Alderman, Senior Social Responsibility Manager at Winvic told us: “It’s fantastic to be able to create a programme for Careers Leads and showcase the range of roles available within the construction sector to local schools. WMI is an exciting project, where I’m looking forward to developing these relationships further and provide engaging opportunities.”

Cheslyn Hay High School

Staffordshire County Council attended Cheslyn Hay High School’s careers assemblies to discuss career pathways, the local labour market, advice on transferrable skills and future opportunities to work locally on the West Midlands Interchange project. Careers Lead for Cheslyn Hay, Gemma Gleeson, looked at student feedback after the events and said: “100% of students felt more informed about their future options after school and over 60% felt more ambitious for themselves after the assembly”.

Other Activities

We’re excited to be working with a range of local schools and colleges, including liaising with the University of Wolverhampton to offer site visits and other opportunities to their Civil Engineering students. We are also exploring ways to engage further with students from other local schools and colleges and working with the Careers and Enterprise Company as well as Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire Careers Hub. Sign up here for more updates on these partnerships.

We can offer a variety of curriculum engagement activities, including:

• Employability talks
• Insight sessions
• Site visits
• Careers / CV building
• Mock interviews and speed networking

Want to learn more?

If you’re an education professional interested in learning more about our STEM initiatives or exploring potential partnerships, please reach out to us at contactus@communityrelations.co.uk or via telephone Mon-Fri 9am-5pm on our freephone number 0800 377 7345.

 

< BACK TO NEWS & UPDATES