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Wolverhampton demolition specialist goes back to school for Primary Futures

Pupils from a Wolverhampton school were given an insight into the world of demolition recently as part of the ‘Primary Futures’ campaign launch.

John Woodward gave 120 Year 5 and 6 children at Oak Meadow Primary the chance to learn more about a sector that offers an amazing opportunity to be part of high-profile projects, travel the world and develop lots of new skills.

The owner of Penn-based C&D Consultancy talked about the importance of doing well in English and Maths, before showing the groups video clips of successful contracts he’s recently been involved in.

He also painted a picture of a typical day in the life of a demolition expert, which can involve anything from senior management meetings and training young apprentices, to coordinating the safest way to demolish oil rigs, stadiums and high rise flats.

“It was great fun talking about a job I love and seeing how interested the children were…not surprising when the videos showed buildings being brought to the ground I suppose,” explained John, who has been involved in the industry for more than 20 years.

“Our sector does not benefit from a great deal of positive publicity and young people will never automatically think of it as a possible career. Taking part in Primary Futures is a great way to change this and get the message across so that they start thinking about taking subjects that may lead to a job in demolition.”

He continued: “Apart from Apprentices there are no other programmes designed to get young people into our industry. We have to take action ourselves to ensure we don’t run out of skills over the next twenty years.”

Tish Keech, Regional Coordinator for both the Inspiring Futures and Primary Futures initiatives, added her support: “We are delighted that John has embraced both schemes from the start and his talks engage and inspire the children to consider jobs that they may have thought were unavailable to them. The videos are also perfect for the talks.”

C&D Consultancy was established in 2003 and has grown into one of the leading demolition specialists in the country, coordinating a host of projects across the UK and Europe every year.

Its team of 8 experts can advise on initial planning, project management and one-off consultancy, as well as being brought in to turnaround crisis jobs.

The company also operates its own extensive training arm, which carries out more than 120 bespoke courses in asbestos removal, dispute resolution, health and safety, Environmental Management and trade supervisors.

John concluded: “There’s a lot of demand for our training, with more than 500 days completed last month. This will be a major growth area for our company as we look to expand further in our second decade in business.

Primary Futures aims to widen the horizons and aspirations of primary school children by helping them make connections between their lessons and their futures.

It has been developed by school leaders’ union NAHT in partnership with the Education and Employers charity and is completely free to all state primary schools across England.

Through the programme primary schools can access a vast network of volunteers from different backgrounds and professions - from apprentices to chief executives, archaeologists to zoologists or employees from small, medium sized or multi-national companies.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Russ Cockburn .