Tideway works with colleges to help tackle construction skills gap

In a step towards helping tackle the skills gap in the construction and engineering industry, Tideway has launched a programme of support for Further Education tutors in London.

Working in partnership with the Association of Colleges (AoC), the company building London’s super sewer will be providing a series of briefing sessions around aspects of construction that can be challenging to teach, such as health and safety.

As part of the programme, Tideway employees will also go into five London colleges to give advice and feedback for tutors, and to provide a first-hand perspective of an engineer.

There will also be an opportunity for tutors to shadow Tideway employees on site, to find out what they do in their every day jobs.

Scott Young, Skills and Employment Manager at Tideway, said: “Employees have a key role to play in working with educators to help close the skills gap in our industry. We want to help do this by providing industry knowledge and insights that will equip staff at further education colleges and, in turn, ensure students are better prepared for the world of work and equipped with the skills and knowledge to work in the industry.”

The first termly briefing session in November focused on Health and Safety.

Viviene Bish-Bedeau, Senior Curriculum Manager at Tower Hamlets College, said: “Tideway have reinvented and made real the subject of Health and Safety. Attending this course definitely provided me with food for thought on what we (in education) can do in the classroom to stop Health and Safety being a standalone subject, occasionally raised as a mini attachment to other subjects.

Tideway has made health and safety a way of life, whether in the workplace, commuting or in the home environment. The use of actors and employers with specialism in their given fields made sure the messages of not only safety but health was placed firmly in the spotlight.”