School project

When David Telling, the founder of support and building services group Mitie, died 18 months ago, the company directors knew what they should do by way of a memorial. John Telling, David’s nephew and Mitie’s head of corporate affairs, says: “It was always David’s philosophy to give young people the best possible chance to better themselves, so now we’re looking to do this.”

This tribute to Mitie’s founder has taken the form of the construction of skills centres in secondary schools, a project that also makes an important step towards meeting one of the key recommendations of the Tomlinson Report – that any overhaul of vocational subjects must be performed only with the full involvement of the industries in question.

The aim is to enable 14-16 year olds to attain a nationally recognised qualification in construction – namely the foundation certificate in construction, which is the equivalent of an NVQ Level 1. The first two centres have opened in the past week, at The Fred Longworth School in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester (right) yesterday, at The Withywood Community School in Withywood, near Bristol.

Mitie’s role was to fit out the construction skills centres so that they could cater for 36 students a year, with areas for wet trades, dry trades and a classroom. The firm will also provide tools, equipment and personal protective equipment as required – the total cost of each centre being about £25,000.

Mitie staff are also encouraged to become actively involved in the centre by assisting with the curriculum. Telling says: “The schools have their own teachers, but we take tradespeople down there. They can tell the students what it’s really like, and they are examples to them of what they can achieve. Staff are involved up to director level. That shows that just because you’re learning a manual trade, it doesn’t mean that’s what you have to do for life.”

Mitie has deliberately chosen schools near the company’s centres in order to make it easier to provide support. This also goes part of the way to solving one of the problems with practical courses identified by the Tomlinson Report, namely the lack of availability of local work experience.

For legal reasons, 14 and 15 year olds are unable to work on site, but as soon as they reach 16, those who show an interest can be taken on as apprentices to pursue a BTech in construction, which is the equivalent of four GCSEs. He points out that there is no pressure on students to join Mitie as opposed to other firms.

Mitie had to choose schools with existing areas big enough to replicate a site environment. This was just one of the selection criteria, however. Telling says: “Not every school is suitable. We approached the local authorities and CITB–ConstructionSkills and received interest from three or four schools in each area. We

were looking for schools where they have a blended educational approach, mixing academic and practical work, and a get-up-and-go attitude. They’re not necessarily the best performing schools.”

A case in point is the scheme’s pilot project, St Luke’s School in Portsmouth, which opened a centre three years ago. Telling says: “It was an underperforming school, but it had a dynamic new headteacher who said ‘we need this’.”

Mitie has plans to open six skills centres in total over the next year, the next being at a school in Middlesbrough in September.