Educate, Inspire and Empower
Educate, Inspire and Empower
For many schools, providing meaningful careers education isn’t the challenge, it’s making it happen in practice.
The Gatsby Benchmarks set a clear standard for good careers guidance. But when it comes to delivering real employer engagement and high-quality work experience, many schools are under pressure.
That’s where Constructing Change comes in.
The Gatsby Benchmarks are a framework designed to improve careers education in schools and colleges. Some are easier to deliver than others. Two in particular stand out:
Benchmark 5: Encounters with Employers and Employees
Benchmark 6: Experiences of Workplaces
In simple terms, students need to meet real people doing real jobs and experience real working environments.
While the intention is there, delivery can be challenging. Schools often face limited access to employers, safeguarding and logistical constraints as well as time pressures. It can also be difficult to arrange experiences that are genuinely meaningful, rather than just ‘ticking a box’.
In sectors like construction and infrastructure, the barriers can be even higher as live sites and safety requirements can mean access is often restricted.
As a result, students miss out on seeing industries that they might have otherwise considered, and at a key point in their lives when they’re making decisions about their future subject choices or approaching their GCSEs.
This is where we come in. Constructing Change was created to bridge the gap between education and industry.
Through our Learning in Action programme, we work with schools and industry partners to deliver structured, site-based experiences that bring careers to life. Students aged 13-16 visit live construction sites, meet a wide range of professionals to hear their career journeys, and also take part in hands-on activities.
It gives them a real insight into how projects are delivered (and not just what they read in a textbook!)
These aren’t classroom talks, but they are real-world experiences, led by people working in the industry, showing what a career could actually look like.
Every Learning in Action Day connects students with a wide range of professionals, from engineers and planners to plant operators and environmental specialists.
At the same time, students experience the workplace for themselves by stepping onto live sites, seeing how projects operate and engaging with tools and equipment – including wearing the hard hats and PPE that is required, adding to the overall experience.
This delivers meaningful, structured work experience aligned to Gatsby requirements. For example a recent site visit to Kendal created 300 hours of work experience, while another recent day in Bolton created 90 hours.
These are significant contributions where students come away feeling inspired with a greater knowledge of just what career paths are possible for them in this space. It also helps to shift perceptions about construction – and who it’s for… construction isn’t just building walls!
Teachers regularly tell us these experiences “bring careers to life in a way the classroom simply can’t”, while for many students, it’s the first time they’ve thought: “I could do this.”
At its heart, Constructing Change is about access. Many young people, particularly girls and those from backgrounds where construction isn’t necessarily visible, rule out the industry before they’ve had a chance to understand it.
By opening up sites and connecting students with industry, we help to change that.
We take away a lot of the heavy lifting for schools to make all of this possible. Here at Constructing Change, we bring together industry partners, contractors, public sector organisations and educators to create opportunities that are not only practical, but enjoyable and genuinely impactful.
If you are a school looking to arrange meaningful work experience for your students, do please get in touch – we would be happy to hear from you and answer any questions you may have.
Email Sarah Fontana here: info@constructing-change.com
Categories: Insights