Construction students from Coleg Cambria have been given a taste of life on a real building site, courtesy of one of Wales’s top builders.
Construction students from Coleg Cambria have been given a taste of life on a real building site, courtesy of one of Wales’s top builders.
Award-winning Anwyl Construction hosted a visit by the students, all in their first year at the college’s Bersham Road, Wrexham, campus, at Colliery Road, Chirk, where a new £2.4 million medical centre is nearing completion.
The 15 students, from North and Mid Wales and Cheshire, were given a tour of the new state of the art complex by Site Manager Ed Wild and were also accompanied by Anwyl’s Director Tom Anwyl
The new eco-friendly Medical Centre will replace the Chirk Surgery’s current premises in Castle Road and will feature a number of sophisticated ‘green’ features, including photo-voltaic solar panels and an advanced drainage system.
The two-storey steel-framed building is the first purpose-built surgery to be built in North Wales for leading healthcare building specialists Matrix Medical and will include a minor operations facility and a pharmacy as well as being the base for the Chirk Surgery.
Tom Anwyl said: “This is a very prestigious development and features some extremely advanced techniques and I’m sure the students will have found it interesting, particularly those who may not be used to seeing how the theory all gets put into practice.
“We’re very pleased to work with Coleg Cambria as Anwyls have a longstanding commitment to apprenticeships and a long relationship with further education colleges in North Wales and with the Construction Industry Training Board.
“We view apprentices as the lifeblood of the building industry and we take particular pride in developing them to become the site managers and contracts managers of the future – 20 per cent of our workforce, over 30 people, actually began with us as apprentices.”
Lauren Jones, an 18-year-old from Pen y Cae in Wrexham, said: “I’ve really enjoyed the visit and it’s good to see a site in operation.
“At first I wanted to be a surveyor but I like the construction side of things and have already got a qualification in plumbing and would like to work in construction.”
Trainee surveyor Lloyd Jones, 25, from Buckley, said: “It’s been good value. I’ve enjoyed being on a major site.
“I started as an apprentice in the housing industry and am working towards being a surveyor and seeing this is great experience.”
College Construction Lecturer David Marshall Jones said: “We have brought a good cross section of students here, there are bricklayers and joiners and also civil engineering students.
“It’s a great opportunity for them to see a site in progress, particularly for those who are not with a construction firm and when it comes to their assessments it will give them more knowledge and experience.
“Anwyl are very conscious of health and safety. From the moment we arrived here there was a clear emphasis on that and it’s important for the students to see that applied on site and the importance attached to it.”
Site Manager Ed Wilde, from Chester, said: “I know from my own experience how valuable these site visits are for apprentices and I have taken students around on previous sites I’ve worked on.
“We do things properly at Anwyl so it gives them a good insight into how a building site should work.”
