• Students become part of an interdisciplinary team and learn that real projects can be messy or complicated and are not divided neatly into subject areas. In their various roles of steel fixer or drawings manager the students are mentored by professionals and encouraged to make their own decisions (and mistakes!) throughout the week.

• Often this will be the first time students have been on a construction site before and it can be a life changing experience. As co-founder, Alison Ahearn of Imperial College London describes it:

“Students genuinely construct, take decisions and handle the risks so they genuinely own the results. Hence the shift, in many, from engineering student to student engineer.”

 Benefits for students

Constructionarium gives students the opportunity to develop their technical and practical skills. From reading a drawing to tying rebar, completing risk registers and understanding why a method statement is so important. Students have the opportunity to take on different roles within a team, test their skills and learn from their mistakes and then embed the knowledge when they are on site again the next day.

In addition, students are able to develop transferable skills and enhance their employability. Read our testimonials to find out more from students who have attended and the range of skills they gained from a week at Constructionarium:

• Communication
• Teamwork
• Project Management
• Decision Making
• Resilience
• Leadership
• Organsiational
• Time Management
• Planning
• Confidence, to name but a few…

Academic involvement

Constructionarium may be offered as an integrated module of a degree syllabus or as an optional field trip by universities. F.E. Colleges and University Technical Colleges have also attended. The JBM (Joint Board of Moderators), the ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers) and the IStructE (Institution of Structural Engineers) fully support and endorse Constructionarium and we receive high levels of student satisfaction.

Students are split into teams and can undertake the project which best meets their learning requirements, they will be assessed throughout the week in respect of health and safety, budgetary control and project management capability. Constructionarium offers an ‘authentic’ learning experience where learning is amplified as it takes place in a real world context. Working alongside industry partners gives students a level of commercial awareness and a realistic taste of what life on site is like.

 

 

Industry partners

• Our industry partners have the opportunity to partner with an academic institute and use Constructionarium to inspire the next generation of Contractors, Consultants, Engineers, Designers, Quantity Surveyors, Architects and Construction Managers. Many of our partners use Constructionarium to raise their recruitment profile or even as an extended interview process where students can be observed as they work in teams, under pressure and subject to time constraints. Staff who attend Constructionarium to manage and mentor students also benefit from the opportunity to step up to a supervisory role.