A house where learners can build their careers

Innovative college renovation project provides hands-on work experience opportunities
31st July 2016, 10:00am

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A house where learners can build their careers

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/house-where-learners-can-build-their-careers
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Gaining meaningful work experience is a tough task for students studying across every area of the FE curriculum. However, the associated risk in some vocations makes finding an opportunity to use freshly learned skills in an authentic work environment especially challenging.

In construction, for example, many employers are reluctant to take students on work placements because of obvious safety concerns and insurance issues relating to having inexperienced and unskilled workers on site. This was the problem facing construction students at Gloucestershire College. But the college came up with an audacious solution - it decided to buy its own house.

Earlier this year, it became the first UK college to buy a house to renovate and then sell, with every step being embraced as a teaching and learning opportunity.

Students were involved right from the initial stages of the property transaction. They wrote the conditions survey, created plans and reviewed external reports on the structure before putting together a programme of work that needed to be done to transform the tired mid-terrace into a smart home. Once the purchase of the Victorian two-up two-down was completed, students got to work on stripping it back to brick and starting afresh.

More than 100 students have been involved with the house renovation project as part of teaching and learning sessions, assessments and work experience. As well as construction trades, other departments such as media, IT and business have been collaborating across the college on the project, with input on everything from interior design to marketing.

The college plans to buy another property and Rachael Capener, the renovation project manager, is keen to expand learning opportunities with the next renovation, possibly including the development of a project management apprenticeship.

“There’s no point in me putting together a plan of work, me writing the health and safety file and me liaising with local companies and local merchants,” Capener says. “We should be teaching young people how to do that themselves.”

The next “GC House” will be a large, five-bedroom property, which the college will renovate with a view to selling it on to investors as a house of multiple occupancy.

While Capener’s enthusiasm is infectious, she is acutely aware of the risks that the renovation projects pose: not only regarding the safety of students around the many hazards on a building site but also in terms of making sure the work itself is of the highest standard for potential buyers.

“The risk is that if you buy a house that the college has renovated and you find that it’s a bit of a ‘Bodge-it and Scarper Ltd’ job, that could really damage our reputation,” she says.

Neighbourhood watch

But Capener is quick to point out that this will not be the case, as demonstrated by glowing reports from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which has the power to visit the site at any time for inspection.

“The feedback from the HSE has been brilliant. They are really excited and want to use this project as a case study,” she says.

As the property is on a small street, the sudden arrival of a year’s cohort of students had the potential to create significant disruption for residents. Making friends with the neighbours has been an important step towards gaining community support for the project.

Before work began, all residents received a letter explaining about the initiative and they were encouraged to phone Capener directly at any time if they had any concerns.

“The neighbours have reacted brilliantly overall,” she says. “My approach in construction is that if you are doing something, you do it in a kind way.”

In practice, this means keeping the noise to a minimum when a neighbour who works shifts is on nights, and ensuring keen students who arrive early behave respectfully when waiting in the street.

The house is run exactly as a commercial construction site would be, so punctuality, attendance and professional behaviour are key themes drummed into learners.

While the house is clearly an innovative teaching resource for the development of real-world skills, it is also a student showcase for prospective employers.

“The idea is to make the students as employable as we can,” head of school Mike Lawson explains. “Students are here on work experience and we have had them working with employers on site as well. We invite employers who are looking for apprentices to come and visit, and that’s been a great link-up. It’s a sort of try before you buy.”

The project is an ambitious endeavour but one that is already leading to positive effects. The joined-up approach with colleagues across the college has sparked a 20 per cent increase in maths and English attendance for students in the department.

This venture is setting a precedent so there is scope to learn from what has worked well in order to increase the educational value of future construction projects. As the newly refurbished houses sell, the profits will be reinvested into the project.

“It could get very big very quickly,” Capener says. “There’s great appetite for this to be an even bigger cross-college project and there are so many ways for different students to benefit from it. The sky’s the limit, really.”

‘We can’t mess around here’

College workshops are manufactured spaces where a great number of future tradespeople get their first taste of the profession, working within perfectly level walls using the full range of equipment that is on standby.

However, real work sites aren’t like that. Rooms aren’t square, floorboards crack and ceilings fall down. Working in a real house is not a neatly partitioned experience. It requires constant improvisation and problem-solving.

Harry Dibden (pictured) has just completed his level 2 course at Gloucestershire College and, along with a fellow student, is continuing to work on the house over the summer as a paid employee of the college.

The experience has given him a lot of confidence. “You have to really think about what you need and work with what you’ve got,” he says. “At college you have set tasks to do; here you’ve got to figure it out as you go along.”

The experience is making a difference to Dibden’s general professional skills as well as his carpentry, he explains: “Time is more important - we can’t mess around because we have to get on with the work so the house can be finished and sold as soon as possible. There’s no standing around waiting. Here we have to really think about what we do so as not to waste time.”

Sarah Simons works in FE colleges in the East Midlands
@MrsSarahSimons

This is an article from the 29 July edition of TES. This week’s TES magazine is available in all good newsagents. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here

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