Students from St Andrew’s RC Secondary School in Glasgow’s East End recently worked on a community investment project tied to the development of the proposed Parkhead Hub Health and Care Centre, which is being developed in partnership by NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (NHSGGC) and Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP).

This multi-faceted community benefit project was delivered by development partner hub West Scotland (hWS). One of the core aspirations of this particular project was to provide unique training opportunities for young people in the local community who were interested in careers in construction. 

Hoskins Architects collaborated with NHSGGC, hWS, Skills Development Scotland, Glasgow Kelvin College and BAM construction to design and deliver a course as part of the SCQF Level 4 Foundation Apprenticeship Course at Glasgow Kelvin College.

The course aimed to provide the young people with hands-on experience in the design and construction of a building that would benefit their local community and help them gain new skills and connections. The students had a real-life client – Parkhill Secondary School in Haghill that caters for pupils with Additional Learning needs. Parkhill is an eco-friendly school with a strong focus on embedding outdoor learning into the curriculum for all of its pupils. The brief was to design a small building that would help to increase pupil’s participation in outdoor learning activities.

The young people spent time with the main contractor BAM to understand what activities are involved in the lead up to starting a building project on site. The students were then given practical experience during the construction of the project. hub West Scotland and BAM Construction will continue to support the students into apprenticeship opportunities when work begins onsite to construct the new Parkhead Hub Health and Care Centre early this year.

John Marshall, Health Improvement Lead, Glasgow City HSCP said: “This is the first completed project of a wider Community Initiative Action Plan. It has demonstrated great partnership working providing local pupils with an opportunity that the four boys have grasped. All four have been offered a modern apprenticeship and we are planning another cohort for next year.”

Angeline Robertson, Partnerships Director at hub West Scotland said: “Our aim is to maximise the design period of projects to get local people the right support to enable them go on to employment during the construction stage of our projects. This year, spent with the students at St Andrew’s Secondary School, has been a huge success and everyone involved should be proud of what we have achieved together. We’re excited to continue to support the students in the next stage towards employment on the project.”

Lisa Murphy of St Andrew’s RC Secondary School added: “For us it has been a great collaboration as it’s contextualised the learning of our pupils. All pupils have got so much from the programme.”