West Berkshire & North Hampshire

74 students from six schools in West Berkshire attended a taster day at The Downs School on Monday 18 March, as part of the Education Business Partnership’s Spotlight on Careers series.

The second of six in the series, this particular event looked at construction, engineering and architecture professions and was attended by the Kennet School, The Willink School, The Downs School, St Bartholomew’s School, Trinity School and Theale Green School.

Three key note speakers, Mike Simm from Penspen, Ged Humphreys from the Construction Skills Council and Mike Ryan from National Grid talked about the variety of careers available in their areas and their reasons for choosing their careers.

The students then got the chance to have hands on experience and debate the issues and challenges faced by these professionals. Activities included a hands on plumbing activity organised by JTL Training, David Barrett from Francis Construction gave a hands on demonstration and spoke to the students about his building experiences in Kenya, Ged Humphreys got the students building houses from small kits and Sgt James Jones from the Army had students looking into the logistics of building bridges with a limited amount of time and working in a hostile country.

Lesley Yates, from the EBPWB commented “These industries are very hands on, and this event provided a great opportunity for young people to get a taste of what careers in these areas might be like. Young people need this direct exposure to businesses to help the make informed decisions about their futures. These events are also a great way for experienced business professionals to give something back, and pass on their knowledge to the workforce of the future.”

The next event takes place on Wednesday 24 April at Trinity School and focuses on Law, Police, Forensics and Criminology.