Construction Awareness Week

In September 2019, ENGIE held a Construction Awareness Week in Newall Green Primary School where we not only delivered STEM activities to the children, but also training for some of the children’s parents to help them understand the industry.

In October 2019, ENGIE began offering work experience to the parents who attended this course, one of whom was Chloe. After passing both her Health and Safety in Construction Level 1 and obtaining a CSCS card during the awareness week, Chloe was eager to get on site and learn more about the industry. Whilst initially nervous, Chloe was taken under the wing of the site team where she learnt more about different trades, the different stages of house building, as well as labouring duties towards the end of her week.

However, the end of her work experience week was only just the beginning, as she took a shine to health and safety aspects of the job. ENGIE’s site team were so impressed by Chloe’s desire to learn that they agreed for her to continue attending site. For one day a week up until the end of December 2019, Chloe would attend Amberley Drive to learn more about health and safety and pathways into this line of work.

With ENGIE’s support, Chloe successfully acquired funding for a National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) course, which could open up plenty of career opportunities. During this time, ENGIE noticed that Chloe was doing a lot of research using her phone as she did not have a computer. A NEBOSH course requires work to be submitted online, so ENGIE decided to donate a refurbished laptop to Chloe so she had the right tools to complete her course.