by Sarah Topping | Oct 19, 2021 | CSR, News
Open Doors Week took place in October this year. We hosted eight sessions across three of our sites in the North & Scotland region, giving access to a live construction project to over 90 people. Open Doors is delivered by Build UK and it allows members of the public to go behind our hoardings and view some of our live construction sites. It is an opportunity for people to find out more about their local projects, the people behind the projects and find out about the breadth of roles available in the construction industry. Our three projects that opened their doors were Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot, Newmarket Approach in Leeds and NHS Golden Jubilee in Scotland. Visitors enjoyed a presentation on the projects followed by a walk around site to view the works and get the latest project updates from key team...
by Sarah Topping | Oct 11, 2021 | CSR, News
Dale Capstick is a site manager within our Construction North & Scotland business. Dale previously served with the Royal Marines but was discharged on medical grounds and here, Dale explains how leaving the Forces felt like he was going from 100mph to 30mph but thanks to the transferable skills he possessed he was able to choose a new career in construction – and thrive. “I grew up in the Yorkshire Dales and as much I enjoyed school, I never really got the support and time that I needed to excel in the main subjects like maths, science and English. Although I liked them, I found I was better suited to art and design technology. I was told I was likely dyslexic but never officially diagnosed and despite trying my best I left school with poor GCSE grades. At the age of 13, I got my first job as a pot washer in a local pub a mile down the road and I later became a waiter at the same pub. After leaving school at 16 I started working as labourer on a building site where the building process fascinated me. I attended college and qualified as a plasterer and four years later I retrained as a plumber. I enjoyed this but I wanted a new challenge. A few of my friends spoke about joining the Army and I looked into joining and applied for the elite Royal Marine Commandos and after an arduous 32-week training course I passed out for duty and I joined 40 Commandos in Taunton. Soon after this I was deployed to Afghanistan and after serving...
by Sarah Topping | Oct 7, 2021 | CSR, News
Anthony Frith (Site Manager in our Nottingham business) undertook the Coast to Coast Challenge for End Youth Homelessness during the month of September. He started at Robin Hoods Bay on the East Coast and walked to St Bees on the West Coast, covering upwards of 140 miles and if that wasn’t enough, he slept rough each night as well. His main aim for doing this was to help young people who find themselves homeless and to date he has raised an amazing £2227! Due to excruciating pain in his legs, Ant did have to miss a short leg of the route but he did cover the total mileage and more due to getting lost a couple of times and his map was even stolen at a pub en-route! The section that he missed will be completed in the October half term. Ant also did a detour and climbed Helvellyn via Striding edge, which is very precarious at the best of times, let alone with 26kgs on his back. But this just added to the experience and pushed him on not only physically but mentally. This made Ant realise that he can push himself a lot further than he thought – past his pain threshold and just breaking through mental brick walls. Ant met a lot of wonderful people on his walk, who were all very supportive and great to talk to and he is now looking at his next charity challenge and seeing what he can do to make it an even bigger event. Well done...
by Sarah Topping | Oct 5, 2021 | CSR, News, Project Information
Our Shakespeare North project has hosted the Open Doors Week launch event. Open Doors is delivered by Build UK, enabling visitors of all ages to take a look behind the hoardings on a range of ‘live’ construction sites and see what a career in construction is really like. The campaign will take place across the UK from 4-9 October 2021 and to launch the week we held a special event at The Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot. In attendance at Shakespeare North was Cllr Graham Morgan (Leader of Knowsley Council), Cllr Margaret Harvey (Cabinet Member for Children’s Services), Cllr Tony Brennan (Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Economic Development) and Melanie Lewis, Chief Executive of the Shakespeare North Playhouse along with students from Knowsley Community College. Open Doors also provides members of the public with an opportunity to discover how the buildings in their community are constructed with a visit available this Friday, which must be pre-booked on the Open Doors website. It will also give other students a chance to find out more about the diverse range of skills and professions needed on a live construction site. In total across Kier, 16 sites will be opened to the public across England, Scotland and Wales and three virtual careers events will be held. The Shakespeare North Playhouse will open its doors in 2022 with a capacity for between 320 and 472 seats. The brand new theatre is based on the iconic 17th century ‘cockpit-in-court’ designs of Inigo Jones. It will boast an inclusive education programme, digital gallery, visitor centre and additional performance spaces including an outdoor performance garden. In addition to...
by Sarah Topping | Sep 13, 2021 | CSR, News
Earlier this year we received a request to ask if we could provide assistance to The Rock Trust, Scotland’s youth-specific homelessness charity to help improve their facilities. Grant Bradford, Senior Project Manager became involved and we agreed to convert two existing spaces in the basement of 55 Albany St in Edinburgh into two new therapy rooms for homeless adolescents and young adults. With the help of our supply chain partners NG Bailey, Linear and McGregor Flooring we carried out the following works: New partitions, doors, lighting, ventilation, vinyl flooring, decoration and additional socketsSupplied and installed a new decking area in the rear gardenCarried out pointing repairs to existing stone wall in garden The charity’s main aim is to end youth homelessness in Scotland by ensuring that every young person has access to expert youth specific services to assist them to avoid, survive and move on from homelessness. We advise, educate and support young people to enable them to build the personal skills and resources required to make a positive and healthy transition to adulthood. We also work to ensure that the public, policy makers, commissioners and practitioners understand the issues, make decisions and take action which will end youth...
by Sarah Topping | Aug 17, 2021 | CSR, News
Back in 2019 we agreed to sponsor a construction classroom at The Sheffield College and this has gone from strength to strength since it opened and we have given / had the following: We have covered the following topics which feeds into the curriculum and therefore supporting the students learning. Each session has been supported by Donna Howard and a relevant member of the Yorkshire team. Roles & responsibilities in construction – Donna HowardSite management and health & safety – Steve FryArchitecture & design management – Race Cottam & Rhianna GreenwoodEnvironmental & sustainability issues in the industry – Hannah AstonProject planning – James DysonCivil engineering – Tom HagueQuantity surveying – Liz MawBuilding control & regulations – Stuart Clayburn & Claire Straughan Amy Stanley was one of the students within the Kier Academy and she said: “I have thoroughly enjoying being a part of the Kier Construction Academy as it is a great way to learn about the construction and the built environment industry and all the different features that are included. We are also able to speak with employees who are doing the job every day and we get to understand the insight of each job role. Before I started, I wanted to be a civil engineer, however, now I have learned more, I am thinking of becoming either an architect or an interior designer.” Shani Hammon, Employer Relationship Co-ordinator for The Sheffield College also said: “Over this last 2 years we have gone from strength to strength with our Employer Skills Academies, GetAhead programmes and our VR! All of this isn’t possible without the support of you so...
