Provian Construction is furthering its relationship with Herne Bay High School (HBHS) by working together on a programme of activities to give students the cutting edge in the jobs market.
In conjunction with the Human Resources Department of Provian’s parent company, The Brett Group, support sessions have been arranged for students on Business Studies courses. These activities are being run by Jon Lambert, Human Resources Manager. Speaking of the pioneering programme, he said “as students enter the world of work they need a well rounded set of skills to increase their chances of securing the career that is most rewarding to them. Chief amongst these skills is the ability to solve problems and work as part of a team. The practical problem solving activities that we are providing will help the students to further develop these skills”.
Running across five days between October and February, activities on the course included a simulated bridge building exercise, a recruitment lecture and practice interviews. Provian has also taken on a long term work experience student from HBHS, who began spending half a day a week with the company on the 28th September 2009 and will remain until Easter 2010.
Sarah Caswell, Assistant Head of Business and Vocational Studies at HBHS added, “it’s great to have a company such as Provian keen to get involved with Work Related Learning and Enterprise opportunities within the school”.In addition to the team based problem solving exercises, guest lecturers in Marketing, Human Resources & Finance have been invited to talk to students. These individuals are keen to come to the school to give the working world a relevance to student’s academic studies.
Martin Lee, Contracts Manager at Provian Construction concludes that “other exciting activities are being considered to involve a wider group of students. These include creating a video record of a build, which will give the students a chance to create a permanent record of the construction".