Highlights of 2023
Just some of the activities taking place over the last year...
The room will still be used for inductions, health and safety briefings and toolbox talks but now in addition to this, the facility will be used by training providers to deliver accredited courses to Newham residents.
The branding is being looked at and the room will be kitted out by the end of November, ready for external providers to deliver courses in the New Year.
After a meeting with Buildskill, we are awaiting a proposal from the company to discuss how they can use our new Knowledge Quad (KQ) to deliver employability courses. Buildskill goal is to play a leading role in filling the national skills gaps.
In a partnership between the Department for Education and Times Higher Education, an International Green Skills Conference was held at the Imperial College London and a Morgan Sindall apprentice was selected to attend. The guest speaker was none other than the Secretary of State for Education – Gillian Keegan – who spoke with our Morgan Sindall representative to discuss his apprenticeship and our commitment to social value and sustainability.
The Deputy Major was also joined by Rokhsana Fiaz, Mayor of Newham and Unmesh Desai, London Assembly Member and Newham Councillor. The VIP visitors took a tour of the site and learned about the positive impact the project is already having in Newham. Joanne McCartney commented:
It was an honour to be invited to the Manor Road project to see first-hand the high-quality, new affordable homes being built and to meet the fantastic young apprentices helping to deliver the new development.
From the outset of the Manor Road Quarter (MRQ) project, we have invested heavily into the London Design & Engineering UTC (LDEUTC).
Earlier in the year and given our continuous partnership, LDEUTC signed up to our Morgan Sindall Education Partnership pledge.
We have recently been in discussions with the UTC regarding their T-Level students and providing them with opportunities to undertake their 45 day industrial placement here at the MRQ project.
In our latest intake of apprentices and after a work experience placement last year, we have welcomed Newham resident, Ugne Augustauskaite, from LDEUTC as an Apprentice Quantity Surveyor.
We have also been approached by LDEUTC to discuss their Digital and Civil Engineering apprenticeships to ask us to support their learners with work placements.
Other activities have included:
After the success of the event in December last year, we held another health and safety activity on the site compound. We will visit students in December for them to present their findings.
Continued to offer work experience placements across all disciplines, including commercial, design, engineering and site management.
Delivered a Spaghetti Challenge activity to Year group 11 to introduce students to a construction company. Students were then tasked with designing and building the tallest tower using only spaghetti and marshmallows!
Supported mock interviews as part of National Apprenticeship Week. We interviewed five students for 45 minutes each, asking competency questions.
Before the end of the year, we are also hosting hazard activity presentations for Year 12 students.
After meeting with the CITB to discuss various opportunities, including funding available to small/medium and micro-size businesses, we partnered with them to deliver a talk about the support available. The talk included benefits of registering with CiTB, grants available to businesses and the apprenticeship levy. Five subcontractors joined online whist three attended in person.
To celebrate our apprentices and the amazing scheme we have on offer, we interviewed some of the MRQ apprentices who talked about their journey into construction and what a typical day looks like.
Our Newham Work has been designed to help Newham residents into work. We have been working closely alongside them to ensure all jobs created by Morgan Sindall and our supply chain are advertised with Newham’s job brokerage team.
We have also attended jobs fairs organised by Our Newham Work to talk about upcoming job opportunities for local residents.
Partnering with Newham Council, the Manor Road team delivered an accredited arts workshop to Year 3 children at Stratford Manor Primary School. We carried out a presentation to the class about Morgan Sindall and the Manor Road Quarter Phase 1 development. We then encouraged discussion around regeneration and what it means to the children. Using some of the words the children used to describe regeneration, we asked them to design posters, followed by completing their Arts Award Discover booklet. These pictures are now proudly displayed on the Manor Road hoarding.
We collaborated with our brickwork subcontractor - Lee Marley and a school in Newham, School 21. Three Year 10 students built a bricked bench within the school premises with help from Lee Marley. We also delivered two, hour long workshops, teaching both bricklaying and teamwork skills, to build the bench which will be used by students for years to come.
The Manor Road team delivered a career in construction talk to learners on an EEP (enrichment, employment, pastoral) programme delivered by Community Links. The 16-week programme is aimed at young adults not in mainstream education. Sam Breaks, Senior Site Manager and Monica Paul spoke to 15 young people about Morgan Sindall, the MRQ project and opportunities on offer, including site tours and work experience.
We supported the WiC (Women into Construction) Employment Programme in Newham. As part of the programme, all contractors were asked to take part in a Speed Mock Interview session where the Manor Road team interviewed 15 women.
Following on from this, our team delivered a Site Tour & Talk to 15 women as part of their five-week WiC Employment Programme.
Newvic Sixth Form College invited the Manor Road team to deliver a talk to their T-Level students studying construction. Lee Askey, Project Director and Honor Lewis, Graduate Quantity Surveyor spoke about their education and career journey into Project Management and Quantity Surveying, which was followed by a Q&A.
We have interviewed a number of T-Level students who would like to undertake their 45 day industrial placement on the MRQ project. This year, we have taken on three of the Newvic learners.
As part of Suicide Prevention Week, Morgan Sindall partnered with Newham Council and social enterprise, Combat 2 Coffee to deliver an information outreach stand for the workforce on the MRQ project. Newham Council engaged with over 40 people on the day giving out useful information about financial support, wellbeing services and useful numbers.
Monica met with Newham’s Social Enterprise Academy to discuss participating in the upcoming Dragon Dens project in Newham. MRQ will support this exciting project which will start in the New Year.
The social value team identified a social enterprise business which makes bird boxes using recycled/unused materials - we now have two installed on site.
We met with New Life Project, a Newham-based Social Enterprise business that provides a range of services i.e. cleaning, gardening, DIY, etc. which we now use for a variety of services.
Earlier in the year, Monica went over to Caritas Anchor House Your Place to view the wooden planter which was donated to the homeless charity by the MRQ project team and made by Community Wood Recycling.
In the first week of December, we had a local resident on work experience with the Engineering team at Manor Road.
The recently graduated young person enjoyed his week-long placement and said…
“The experience was invaluable and provided me with a profound insight into the field I aspire to be a part of…”
Manor Road team delivered a T-Level talk to 50 students at Newham College studying construction. Monica spoke about the various disciplines and the process. Newham College will arrange for students to submit CVs/Cover letters for Morgan Sindall Construction and our supply chain partners; interviews will be held in the New Year.
