Bellway hosted a visit by a group of young people at its Newcastle headquarters to help promote awareness of career opportunities in the construction industry. The 19 students were given a tour of the Western Grange development in Killingworth and met Bellway staff at the company’s head office in Woolsington as part of a weeklong bootcamp organised by the non-profit academy Regeneration Brainery. The organisation aims to boost diversity in the property and regeneration sector by increasing job awareness and providing hands-on work experience opportunities for 14 to 21-year-olds thinking about a career in the industry. The group were hosted by Bellway on the third day of their five-day bootcamp on Wednesday 18 March. The day began with a visit to Bellway’s head office, where the students were given introductions to core parts of the business, such as commercial, architecture, construction, sales and marketing, and customer care. The group then took part in a construction team challenge featuring dominoes to bring it to life, which was followed by an interactive session where they were tasked with planning, analysing and pitching a potential land acquisition.  In the afternoon, the students were taken to the nearby Western Grange development where they got to see homes at various stages of construction and take part in a bricklaying challenge. Laura Cooper, Head of Learning & Organisational Development at Bellway, said: “Faced with an increasing skills shortage, it’s absolutely vital for the construction industry to attract people from a diverse range of backgrounds, enabling it to draw on the widest pool of talent available. In order to do this, it must not only raise awareness about the variety of opportunities that exist but also to give young people first-hand experience of what these roles entail. “Regeneration Brainery aims to do exactly that, by connecting young people thinking about a career in construction to experienced professionals who can give them a valuable insight into what working in the industry is really like. We were really pleased to partner with this forward-thinking project and it was a pleasure to host the group of young people on the day. We hope they found the experience useful and that they now feel better informed about the range of exciting career opportunities that are open to them. “Partnering with organisations such as Regeneration Brainery complements the work we already doing to raise awareness of careers in construction through our ongoing outreach with schools and colleges in the areas around our developments. And, as a company, we are committed to increasing the ethnic and gender diversity of our workforce while continuing to provide opportunities for young people to enter the industry through our graduate and apprenticeship programmes.” More information about career opportunities with Bellway can be found at https://www.bellwaycareers.co.uk/. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals