Kemany pupils construction challenge success
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This week teams from secondary schools around the North-east competed in the final heats of a new construction challenge, taking place at North East of Scotland College Fraserburgh Campus on Tuesday, and Stewart Milne Group’s Westhill office on Thursday.
The Build Your Future challenge was launched by Grampian Construction Training (GCT) in August of this year and was designed to highlight the full range of exciting, inspiring and rewarding career choices within the construction industry to pupils, parents and teachers.
The event very quickly gathered widespread support from various groups, businesses and educational establishments including Halliday Fraser Munro, Stewart Milne Group, Glulam Solutions, K R Group, Robert Gordon University, North East of Scotland Colleges, Kirkwood Homes, and Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) to name only a few.
Collectively, supporting companies created a range of inspiring construction-based tasks including Build a Sustainable City, Create a Lock Block Driveway, Plumbing Obstacle Course, Build a Structure Without Using Your Hands, and Build a Tower, on Time and Under Budget.
Each task is allocated a maximum of 30 minutes, and teams are marked on criteria such as how well they worked as a team, and their overall understanding of what was expected of them.
Secondary schools from Aberdeen City and Shire were invited to submit a team of ten S2 pupils to take part in a series of construction-based challenges, with one team from each heat going through to a final event that is taking place at Aberdeen Football Club on Thursday, January 30.
The overall winner will be presented with their award by special guest Stewart Milne, who will have the chance to share his own career path with the pupils.
20 out of the 30 secondary schools signed up to take part in this first year, and teams of 10 from the following secondary schools are now going through to take part in the final challenge: Meldrum Academy, Lochside Academy, Harlaw Academy, Mintlaw Academy, Ellon Academy, Turriff Academy, Kemnay Academy and Westhill Academy.
Chair of Grampian Construction Training Jim Buchan said: “We are absolutely delighted at how well the Build Your Future challenge has been embraced by the north-east.
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank every school who signed up to take part in this first year, ensuring that the challenge got off to the best possible start.
“We are extremely fortunate to have met over 200 incredible young people across the past months, and it has been wonderful to see how they tackled and embraced each of the challenges they were set.
“I would also like to congratulate those who have made it to the final, we look forward to seeing them all again at Aberdeen Football Club in January.”
“I would also like to thank all the companies and individuals who have given up their time, expertise and financial support to ensure that Build Your Future was not only free for all schools to take part in, but that it also showcased the wide range of opportunities within construction, and the incredible projects that pupils could go on to work in.”
There are still opportunities for companies to support the Build Your Future challenge, and if you would like to know more contact Isla.stewart@mearns-gill.com or call 01224 646311.
