Bringing Scaffolding to Life for the Next Generation
When Heart of Yorkshire Education Group invited Scaffolding Access Solutions to take part in their ‘Give Construction A Try’ event, the Dewsbury-based NASC member did not hesitate. With more than 200 pupils from Years 8 and 9 in attendance, it was a significant opportunity to put scaffolding in front of young people at exactly the right moment in their education.
Contracts Manager Nathan Croft and his colleagues arrived with two distinct elements to their session. Outside, a variety of scaffold structures gave pupils the chance to get hands-on with real equipment, using spanners, levels and tape measures and getting to grips with the different components that make up a scaffold. Inside, the NASC talent pack provided the basis for classroom activities, while pupils also had the opportunity to put on a harness and try out tie test equipment.
When the weather intervened, the outdoor element had to be scaled back. But rather than dampening the session, it simply shifted the focus indoors. As Nathan reflects, every single pupil engaged enthusiastically with the Knex modelling and the VR headsets. The technology proved a particular hit, bringing scaffolding to life in a way that surprised and genuinely interested young people who may have had little prior awareness of the industry.
The feedback from the day was overwhelmingly positive. For some pupils, scaffolding emerged as a serious option for the future for the first time. For Scaffolding Access Solutions, the impact was equally clear. On the strength of the response, the company has since been invited back to attend future events with different age groups, with a view to progressing towards employment or apprenticeships for those who show an interest.
For Nathan, the message behind events like this is straightforward: the construction industry is about far more than a hi-vis jacket and a hard hat. Scaffolding offers skilled, rewarding and varied careers, and the sooner young people understand that, the better placed the industry will be to attract the talent it needs.
Scaffolding Access Solutions has been an NASC member for nine years, working across the health and pharmaceutical, commercial and industrial, retail and chemical sectors.
For more information on the Give Construction a Try scheme, visit: https://www.heartofyorkshire.ac.uk/news-events/news/give-construction-a-try-inspiring-the-next-generation-of-construction-industry
