5 January 2016

A rowing machine was used by Costain to attract visitors at one of the capital’s major career events.

Aimed at 15-24 year olds, Skills London provided the potential future of the construction/engineering industry and their families with a chance to discover more about career options through interactive, inspirational demonstrations and professionals willing to answer their questions about a range of opportunities.  Costain volunteer staff, including apprentices and graduates, helped young people visually bridge the gap between what they enjoy doing and what they could potentially do later as a career.

Costain supported the London Design and Engineering University Technical College (UTC) at the event, also in Newham, at the ExCeL Centre in Docklands.  The event attracted 33,000 visitors in just two days.

Costain was one of several industry sponsors of LDE UTC at the event.  Among the aspects highlighted by Costain on its stand was the Company’s work with joint ventures on projects such as Crossrail and Tideway.

A tunnel boring machine that is working at peak production could achieve up to 250 metres in a week.  With that in mind, volunteers from London Youth Rowing were on the Costain stand to hold a competition to find out who could row 250 metres in the fastest time.

A constant flow of youngsters had a go at the challenge, with the best male and female contestants winning work experience placements on the new Tideway project.

“We were targeting two things,” said Jeremy Galpin, Costain’s Legacy Lead working for the Costain, VINCI Construction Grands Projets and Bachy Soletanche joint venture (CVB) delivering the Tideway East project.  “We were encouraging young people to consider attending the new LDE UTC, either for Year 10 or 6th Form.  We met a lot of children and their parents and had really good conversations with students who were already interested in an engineering or design career.

“Secondly, we were looking for potential recruits to our apprentice programme.

“There were a lot of interested enquiries, both about Costain but also our joint ventures such as eight₂O” – Thames Water’s alliance that includes Costain – “Crossrail and the Tideway projects.

“It was certainly worthwhile from the number of connections we made.  We have a database with everyone who registered their interest and we will go back to individuals to connect and take forward their interest both in the LDE UTC and Costain apprentice opportunities.

Recruitment for the new LDE UTC is going well and prospective applicants for both year 10 and 12 are urged to apply via the schools website at https://www.ldeutc.co.uk/apply.aspx

 

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