The team at Lovell, EDN Carpentry & Kitchen Services and Link Construction included past Acle Academy students and former Lovell apprentices to inspire the students about what a career in construction can lead to, as well as giving year 9, 10 and 11 students practical tasks.
The carpentry group got to build a mini house and had Adrian Boulter, health, safety and environment manager at Lovell, and Edd Newbold, director, and David Garland, carpenter, from EDN Carpentry & Kitchen Services joining them. Edd was a former apprentice for Lovell 17 years ago.
The bricklaying team was led by Tommy Salmon, contracts manager at Lovell, who was joined by bricklayers Aaron Smith and Cameron Mercer, both former Acle Academy pupils, from Link Construction.
Tommy said: “The students had a fantastic time and a massive thank you to our subcontractors for joining us, who were absolutely amazing. Giving students an opportunity like this is vital in encouraging them into the profession and giving them real practical advice and skills, and a chance to find out first hand from us and former Acle students is an incredible opportunity and they definitely made the most of it. We were also bowled over with the questions they asked and the level of skill and professionalism they showed.”
Logan Mair, student at Acle Academy, said: “I really enjoyed being able to try carpentry with the team at Lovell. It was brilliant building the house from the plans; we all built different parts and then put them all together to make the whole house. It was so much better being able to try it to see what it was really like instead of just being told about it or even watching someone else. It was good fun and we learnt a lot.”
Camilla Skarin, Assistant Principal and Careers Lead at Acle Academy, said: "It was an absolute pleasure to host our second skills based drop down day in construction together with Lovell as part of the National Apprenticeship Week. The students worked hard under the professionals throughout the day, learning skills linked to both bricklaying and carpentry, building walls and assembling a model timber frame for a house. We were really pleased to see that two of the bricklaying apprentices that came back to visit us were former Acle Academy students, it was lovely to see how well they are doing. Thank you to Lovell and all the subcontractors who took time out to visit our students and not only teach them about the different trades, but also about alternative routes within education post 16."
The event took place during National Apprenticeship Week 2023.
