Students from a Berkshire college got a close-up view of the largest station development in HS2鈥檚 project pipeline as part of Build UK鈥檚 recruitment initiative
As young people enter the workforce, they may have a pivotal moment or event to thank that led them to their chosen career 鈥� perhaps a conversation with someone inspiring or a week of work experience at university. Last week, at Build UK鈥檚 Open Doors event, the students overlooking HS2鈥檚 Old Oak Common site under blue skies may well have experienced theirs.
As part of industry body鈥檚 scheme, which aims to attract new talent to the industry, level three engineering students from Slough and Langley College in Berkshire were invited to inspect the progress being made at the largest railway infrastructure project in Europe.
HS2: a brief overview
The day kicked off with an overview of the HS2 delivered by Uttam Patel, the scheme鈥檚 project team coordinator. Here is what we learnt:
- HS2 is the first new railway to be built in the UK north of London in over 100 years.
- HS2 will span 140 miles from London to the Midlands and then linking to the North and includes 32 miles of tunnel, 179 bridges and four new state-of-the-art stations at Old Oak Common, Euston, Birmingham Interchange and Birmingham Curzon Street.
- Old Oak Common is the largest station and features six high-speed platforms and eight conventional platforms designed to connect over 250,000 passengers daily.
- Old Oak Common is a brownfield site and former service point for locomotive trains.
- The three main construction phases at Old Oak Common Station are the underground box, the overground platforms and the station roof.
- Old Oak Common Station includes includes an 853m logistics tunnel created by a tunnel boring machine (TBM) named Lydia. Two further TBMs are being used to build the Euston Tunnel from the station - named Karen and Madeleine.
From the viewing platform
鈥淩oughly 1,200 people will be working on-site today. It varies, but a large proportion of those are actually underground fixing steel, pouring concrete, preparing platforms, doing a whole range of jobs.鈥�
Jamie Townsend, social value and legacy manager for the Balfour Beatty Vinci Systra Joint Venture (BBVSJV) at HS2 Old Oak Common Station, explains the processes that go into creating the station box, the first phase of the expansive project.
鈥淏asically, the underground structure runs between those two points, so a kilometre long and at the very far end of the site,鈥� he says, pointing out through the floor-to-ceiling panoramic windows of a viewing room four levels off the ground.
He answers the students鈥� questions about tunnelling, explaining how the boring machine (TBM) parts have been lifted in and how the tunnel is laid out underground.
The group of aspiring engineers are eager to learn about the complexity of delivering HS2鈥檚 largest station and the many different roles that a construction professional may take on at the project.
Townsend says: 鈥淭here will then be a roof that spans everything you see out there. It鈥檚 a pretty impressive structure; it will harvest rainwater and it will control the temperature [of the station] with lots of steel and glass. This is more of a machine to be honest, it鈥檚 more mechanical than it is structural or civil.鈥�
As the class stepped out onto the viewing platform to get a closer look at the action, the focal points were the enormous cranes set against a sky-blue backdrop that towered over all other on-site components across the vast development.
Attracting talent
Inviting young people and those looking for a change of career to exciting building projects during Open Doors Week is only one way to entice them into the sector. Around 5% of HS2鈥檚 project team is made up of apprentices, making it the only JV to have achieved more than the 4% industry target. But the BBVS JV senior leadership team is keen to continue growing this number.
鈥淲e know that 88% of our visitors say they鈥檒l consider a career in construction after an Open Doors visit, and we need to recruit 250,000 of them each year. We need 200,000 to replace those leaving and 50,000 additional young people as new entrants,鈥� points out Suzannah Nichol, Build UK鈥檚 passionate chief executive.
Daniello Aspeling, health, safety and environmental lead at the BBVSJV highlights what the industry and its young recruits can offer each other. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important that what these major infrastructure projects offer is a sense of belonging and purpose, so when we travel on that train, it鈥檚 changing the perception of what construction and engineering is,鈥� he says.
鈥淧eople think we just go home with dirty hands, but there鈥檚 a lot more to it, and it involves understanding that we鈥檙e in the age now where we talk about how we鈥檙e going to use AI to enable us. So, we need these people that come through from different generations to bridge the gap.鈥�
Mukta Hashmi, procurement lead at the BBVSJV, started her career as a business apprentice in the defence sector but found she had the transferable skills that would lend themselves to planning procurement. 鈥淚 think there鈥檚 something so magical about construction,鈥� she says.
鈥淚t really does entice you in with the impact you can make. I鈥檝e gone across loads of different industries and come back to construction.鈥�
Steve O鈥橲ullivan, the JV鈥檚 project director, observes that teachers spend a significant amount of time with their students and can therefore influence their career choices. 鈥淚 think the people we really need to [build relationships with] are the teachers,鈥� he suggests.
鈥淚 think we should do more engagement with the teachers on the construction industry, the opportunities and salaries.鈥�
Through partnerships with the Department for Work & Pensions, The Careers & Enterprise Company, Careers Wales, Construction Futures and Skills Development Scotland, Open Doors continues to reach more teachers and students with visit opportunities every year.
Amir Zakari, programme manager at Slough and Langley College, is also keen to 鈥渂uild up more collaboration鈥� between the education system and the construction sector and make known to his students the variety of opportunities an engineering qualification can offer them. He also advocates for a greater focus on gender diversity at both a student and professional level.
Looking around the room, there are only a few female students in the class, but their teacher praises their 鈥渉igh quality鈥� work and would like to see more balance in higher education.
鈥淲e need to see more girls in engineering and more diversity of skills,鈥� he says. Despite the gender imbalance that is too often prevalent across STEM subjects, he calls for teachers to 鈥済ive girls the support they need to make sure they enjoy the course鈥�.
Inspiring the future workforce
Strong role models are a key part of inspiring the future workforce, and there is no shortage of those at HS2鈥檚 Old Oak Common Station. In a series of career presentations, speakers from across the project team shared their stories.
From using mobile robots for surveying and material handling and heavy-lift drones, to curating a sparkling CV with experience working across huge schemes like London鈥檚 Millennium Bridge and the Bull Ring shopping centre in Birmingham, the presenters emphasised that there is no one way to enter the industry.
Marvin Jones, electrical delivery manager at Anthro, took an unconventional route to work on what he describes as 鈥渢he best project ever鈥�. He completed a degree in advertising and marketing before retraining as an electrician. His advice to the workforce of tomorrow is: 鈥淒on鈥檛 be scared of change, don鈥檛 be scared to start again 鈥� it鈥檚 do-able.鈥�
With the students eagerly asking questions and engaging in the team-building activities on the day, there is no reason to doubt that some of them may well be giving their own career presentations at a similar Open Doors event a few years down the line.
No comments yet