Green Skills Day with Bauder for Westminster Residents

Supporting Sustainable Careers and Professional Development

On 25th February, we had the pleasure of collaborating with our supplier, Bauder and, our partner, Westminster City Council with an amazing retrofit education program and practical skills day.

Residents in Westminster took on a 12-week Retrofit intensive program. The course was run by the Westminster Adult Education Service and focused on sustainability and retrofit for use in future careers in retrofit advising and domestic energy assessing.

Axis was able to assist with co-creating an incredible day of work shadowing for these local learners to put their new-found knowledge into action! The day allowed for residents to be part of a retrofit project and see it through from planning to completion.

For the 5 graduates taking on the work shadowing, the day kicked off with an introduction to Axis & Bauder sustainability. Led by Vera O’Driscoll, Social Value Manager, and Daisy Foster-Chambers, Sustainability Coordinator, our Axis representatives spoke about the value of sustainability to Axis and how our retrofit projects are moving us into the future.

Following this, Daniel Sams, Head of Preconstruction, led an engaging session on pre-construction, planning and design to give an insight into these first stages of a project. Tom Pugh, Regional Business Manager for Bauder, also provided an insight into Bauder’s perspective as a supplier of materials in relation to the designing the most sustainable yet reliable materials as possible for Axis Projects. There was then an opportunity for the attendees to ask questions about what they have just learnt to the professionals.

In the afternoon, they attended Dartington House Project for a site visit to the roof where they are renewing the roof and installing PV Panels. Joshua Hodson, Site Manager, gave a tour of the site alongside Jim Bennett, Operations Manager from Russell Trew. The site team explained the process of how to install the PV Panels on the roof and the benefits of the installation for the residents of the estate.

This day was a great opportunity for the graduates to get an insight into the sustainability side of construction from the pre-construction stage all the way into the installation stage of a project. It was a chance to meet real life professionals and understand the various roles within the industry and what skills and knowledge is needed for each.

A question session held at the end highlighted the challenges and benefits of the day, before emphasising how the skills learnt on the course can be applied in practical work.

One student with amazing feedback said ‘I really enjoyed today. We learned how to prepare a survey and do the hands on assessment, as well as assemble on the roof! I learnt a lot and got a deeper understanding about solar panels. I saw a lot of people working hard for a better environment. I want to give a big thanks to all the speakers today, I really enjoyed the day.’

Vera added ‘It was a great opportunity to collaborate with our suppliers, Bauder, to host a insightful day for the students from WAES. They learnt about many different roles within our companies and got an insight into how Sustainability is driving change within the industry. The site visit to see the installation of PV Panels on the roof at Dartington, was very interesting and the students were engaged throughout the day, which was great to see. Thank you to the Westminster team for your support with hosting this day!’

It was great to be able to partner with Bauder to deliver this day to benefit the future careers of these graduates. They are now one step closer to immersing into the world of sustainability within the construction industry and we feel grateful to form part of this!

You can find photos from the day here.