In the third of a four-part series, UK Construction Online’s Matt Brown speaks to Alison Watson, Managing Director and founder of Class Of Your Own Limited – creators of the Design Engineer Construct! (DEC!) programme.
Design Engineer Construct! is an accredited learning programme for secondary-school age students developed to create and inspire the next generation of Built Environment professionals. Through a project-based approach, DEC! applies pure academic subjects to the latest construction industry practices. The result is young people with real-world practical experience and employability skills.
In part III, Alison discusses how best to reach primary school children, encouraging girls into construction and how video games like Minecraft can play a key role.
Do think more could be done to encourage and engage children at primary school age?
Yes, but it’s a tough one. Going around and championing Bob the Builder probably isn’t ideal – we’re simply reinforcing the stereotypical builder. Children at primary school learn how to apply maths in the real world. They have the time to look around them and get to go outside doing practical things and as such, we could do lots to inspire them. It’s too early to say “be a surveyor or an architect” at that age, but we could certainly introduce the skills they need. Using a map and orienteering skills is great – I did a treasure hunt a few years ago with a group of 8 year old Brownies, and they loved the fact they had to orientate themselves with a compass and take a number of ‘giant strides’ (metres!) to find the treasure. Let’s not roll out Bob the Builder, instead let’s think outside the box. It’s just too easy to go into a primary school and say, ‘I’m a builder, this is what I do’ and have a bit of fun with Lego. These kids are playing with Minecraft from a young age! We’re all capable of bringing what we do to a younger age group – a little time and effort can make our jobs really engaging for the children.
Given the reports of underrepresentation of women within the industry, does ‘DEC!’ do anything in particular make the programme more attractive to girls?
I don’t worry about girls coming through because they just do! Girls and boys start off working up a design based on a small school building, but when they get to around 14 years old – a really impressionable age when young people do start to seriously think about their future careers – the brief progresses to designing a building that they believe the community needs.
We find that girls design buildings that mean something to them, such as shopping malls and health centres, equestrian centres and spas. We shouldn’t be concerned with stereotyping – most girls like shopping! And actually, there are just as many shopping malls designed by boys because boys like shopping too. We get a number of football stadiums from the boys, and I know of a boy that is designing a centre for the rehabilitation of returning soldiers.
It’s incredible. Some of the work that these kids do before they are even 16 years old can blow your mind. We simply say to them, “Use your imagination; design what matters to you and your community.”
If a girl wants to design a new Topshop, fine, do it. If you think the community needs a Ralph Lauren shop; justify it and then design it. Whatever building they choose, they are thinking about the end users, services, foundations, environmental efficiencies and a building’s lifecycle.
Would you say there is a ‘point of no return’ in terms of an age where young people will no longer take an interest in STEM?
I don’t think it’s so much to do with interest, but the point of no return comes with the restriction of choices. You can still be interested at 50. The point of no return is when a young person’s choices come more limited. The government goes on about increasing awareness of careers at 16 years of age – that’s too late. Kids don’t wake up on their 16th birthday and suddenly say “I want to be a civil engineer.” It doesn’t happen like that; the seed should be planted well before they take their GCSE options.
Whilst it’s fun to visit primary schools, the serious business begins when kids go into secondary school. When they are choosing their options they are thinking, “Whatever I choose today will affect the rest of my life”. Children have so much angst at this time especially when they’ve had little exposure to really good, reliable careers advice.
Maths and numeracy is still a great problem in our country – we seem to slip down the OECD lists year on year. If they haven’t achieved their Maths GCSE by the time they are 16, some children drop off the radar and can’t see a future for themselves. I just wish that more children could see the value of maths through an applied subject. They would quickly learn not to fear maths when it’s part of a job or environment they want to work in.
Kids are empowered when they know they are using the maths of architects, surveyors, structural engineers. It’s a whole different ball game.
Does the digitalisation of the construction industry with things such as BIM, make DEC! a more attractive option for some students, given similarities with popular video games such as Minecraft?
Massively. It’s funny, I had kids using modelling tools two years before Paul Morrell launched his Level 2 BIM mandate. When it was announced, industry started talking about collaboration and digital engineering. I sat in Paul’s office and told him that I had kids doing the stuff he was talking about and that BIM really needs to be on the government’s agenda to make sure kids are working to the same agenda in schools, albeit at a lesser level, of course.
The reason it’s so easy to work with kids is because they expect to work in teams. They expect to use technology. They go on their smartphones and find some app that enables them to collaborate in real time, and assume that industry is far more advanced then them. There is that expectation from kids that we work in a digital environment and we have to deliver on that.
To read part I of this interview, click here
To read part II, click here
If you would like to read more articles like this then please click here
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