CONTRACTOR Tolent has created online school activities focused on promoting careers in construction which are being used by schools and colleges across the North-East.

Due to the ongoing restrictions posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, Tolent's usual activities of hosting site visits, supporting school career events and general engagement with local education establishments have been unable to go ahead.

The Gateshead-based company set to work to create a suite of materials to ensure the focus on jobs in the industry was not lost.

A number of schools have now trialled the activities and, following good feedback, it will be rolled out wider across the region and beyond.

Andy McLeod, CEO of Tolent, said: “I’m incredibly proud of everyone involved in this project who continue to uphold our reputation as a considerate contractor, going above and beyond what is asked of them and making a real difference to our communities.

“With more than 230,000 construction jobs expected to be created in the next five years, it’s important we engage with school learners now to promote the choice and quality of roles within the industry. We all know how important careers advice and support is for schools, and without being able to get access to the schools this year, I’m delighted we’re still able to support where it’s needed.”

One of the activities showcased 14 different construction roles in a short video with each staff member providing a brief overview of their day-to-day duties in a short video. This showed students the range of traditional and non-traditional roles available within the industry and asked them to guess which job belonged to each member of staff.

Other activities to be launched later this month include a health and safety tour of a live construction site, aimed at primary school students and the team will also be hosting a live tour of a site with a question and answer session to follow for secondary and college students to find out more about what it’s like to work in the industry.

Despite the challenges of 2020, its teams still managed to deliver more than £1.1m of social value activity which included: 17 work experience placements for those aged 16+, 45 days of work experience, safeguarded 31 apprenticeships and created six new apprentice roles and colleagues completed more than 23 hours of wellbeing training, including mental health first aid courses, mindfulness, meditation and managing stress courses.