Blackpool youth get hands-on experience at construction site

Blackpool-based RP Tyson Construction teamed up with the Boathouse Youth charity to give young people from the town experience of a construction site.

Tysons is the main contractor delivering 131 new homes on the Grange Park estate. 

Young people from The Boathouse Youth were invited along to a session where they started off by listening to a health and safety briefing before getting kitted out in some PPE. 

Following this, the young people were introduced to bricklaying. This involved preparing trowels, basic trowel techniques and then onto building a wall. During this time, the young people were able to find out a little bit more about life as a bricklayer from cold weather days to finding out how much they could be paid.

Philip Helm, business development manager at RP Tyson Construction, said: “We’ve been working on Grange Park for over a year now and have got to know the local community really well. When the Boathouse asked us to arrange a session for some young residents, we were more than happy to help.

“Our team loved working with the young people and we were so impressed with how quickly they picked up the learn skills we had taught them.”

Following on from this, some of the youngest residents of the estate were given a tour of the site and their own chance to practice their own building skills.

Shannon Staveley, class teacher at Christ The King Catholic Academy,  said: “The Year 2 children had a wonderful time visiting the site. Recently, they have been learning about electricity in science and architecture in art so our learning was really brought to life through this experience.

"The children loved the tour of the site, they identified the pipes used for electricity and got to ask questions about the solar panels and why they are being included in the build."