Lovell national people development manager Bruce Boughton has won an Education and Business Partnership award for the company's work supporting school students studying for the Construction and Built Environment Diploma in Staffordshire.

The work-related learning programme for Diploma students which Bruce developed is also being considered as a Demonstration Project by the National Homes and Communities Agency.

Bruce replaced traditional work experience for Diploma students with a week-long tailored programme challenging them to design a housing development from scratch. "I wanted to deliver the work experience of a diploma efficiently and effectively," he explained. "Normally, employers just have students in for work shadowing and they don’t necessarily learn very much or get a real taste of what working in the industry might be like." His alternative programme involves students spending a week with Lovell. In the pilot scheme for south Staffordshire schools, students were tasked to design a housing development from a blank site plan, based on an actual Lovell development nearby.

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Students had to devise the development layout, design a house, choose the materials and cost the job. The teenagers visited the actual development which Lovell built and went on site at the company’s major regeneration development at Camp Hill, Nuneaton. They also had the chance to learn from people working in the industry, including a planning officer and from Lovell, managing director Stewart Davenport, national sales manager Joan Cartwright, a management trainee, a construction apprentice and regional training assistant Karen Vanstone.

(CD/KMcA)