As part of our careers-related curriculum, we were excited to welcome Phoebe Gale to school for a talk to Year 5 and 6 this week. Phoebe works for Tilbury-Douglas, a local construction company. She talked to us about some of the large-scale buildings that Tilbury-Douglas are constructing, like hospitals, schools and law courts. They are also currently converting South Walks House in Dorchester into use by the NHS. She then talked to us about the different jobs available in the industry – there’s over 184 different types! And these jobs are not just about building walls or pouring concrete – there are all sorts of other jobs that are necessary to get buildings built! She showed us a website where they are all listed: https://www.goconstruct.org/
Phoebe described some different routes into the sector – not just by getting a degree but also on apprenticeship schemes. Year 5 and 6 knew about some of these pathways already, so it was good to be able to hear Phoebe talking about them some more.
Phoebe showed us a video from women working in the industry – we were surprised to learn that there are still some stereotypes around construction as a profession. Phoebe left us with the the very clear message that the construction industry offers exciting and varied careers for everyone.