“T Level placements offer both the student and business an extraordinary and mutually beneficial opportunity.”
By Beth Modder, Senior Social Value Manager, Willmott Dixon
With the rise of green technologies, net-zero ambitions and AI happening at pace, our industry is significantly shifting and with that comes a need to continuously evolve and learn.
It’s important to us at Willmott Dixon to not only deliver high-quality services but to also support local people and businesses in the communities in which we work.
As well as keeping our current workforce abreast of new opportunities through various training and learning programmes, we’re advocates for technical education and use our position as a nationwide business to give young people the opportunity to learn new skills first-hand, future-proofing the next generation of our workforce.
To date we’re proud to have supported 20 T Level students across Greater Manchester’s colleges from a range of courses including; Business Management, Design, Surveying and Planning and Building Services.
This partnership offers both the student and business an extraordinary and mutually beneficial opportunity.
Our experience at Willmott Dixon is that we’re able to provide an environment for the student to apply their classroom learning in the workplace and importantly, develop those key employability skills such as communication and problem solving.
From a business point of view, we have the privilege of passing on our expert knowledge and experience to the next generation and also have access to a new, quality talent pool for future employees.
Recently, we worked with Stockport College to give T Levels students the chance to work on a live Willmott Dixon project at Stockport Interchange.
We initially met design, planning and surveying students at the college to talk to them about the different careers in construction available to them, as well as sharing the intricacies of the project, which involves building a new rooftop park above the Interchange.
We interviewed six students but the calibre was so impressive, we decided to create an extra opportunity so we could support two individuals, empowering them to be part of a project in their area, instilling local pride as well as teaching them valuable skills.
Both students are a credit to themselves and the college. Their work ethic, enthusiasm and great personalities led to them both being asked to stay on the build for a paid summer placement.
They have been an asset to the site team with their contributions valued, so we were really pleased when they agreed to continue working with us.
To make sure they got the most out of these opportunities, we asked them which part of the business they would like to explore further. One of the students wanted to spend the summer with the commercial team and the other decided that operations was where he wanted to thrive.
The summer placements also led to one of the students agreeing to stay with us for the duration of the project as a paid member of the team. We’re really pleased to share that once he has finished his T Level at college, he will also be joining Willmott Dixon on an apprenticeship.
Collaboration with colleges in this way is vital to us making a lasting difference in communities and as a local employer working across Greater Manchester, it is our responsibility to support the next generation of employees in our industry.
Feedback from colleagues working with the students has been nothing but positive, including the reward they have experienced personally from mentoring the young people.
The 45-day placements really allow for meaningful relationships to be built between the staff and students and gives them the opportunity to see a build progress over a sustained period of time, allowing students to truly understand the hard-work, commitment and craft that is needed for such transformational projects.
We’d like to extend a huge thank you to the staff at the college for the support they gave us and the students throughout this partnership. We’re really looking forward to working with Stockport’s T Level students again this academic year.
