Student development gives youngsters a taste of construction careers

YOUNGSTERS from a Glasgow secondary school have received a tour of a student accommodation development in the city as part of Scottish Apprenticeship Week.

Five pupils from King’s Park Secondary took part in the tour of the Scotway House project, currently being developed by GRAHAM Construction.

The teenagers learnt about different construction job roles and heard from project manager Joe Lambie and apprentice Darren McHugh. Darren initially joined GRAHAM as a labourer before starting a four-year apprenticeship to become a joiner. He’s now started a two-year apprenticeship as a trainee planner.

Scotway House is a 400-bed student development set over 15 floors. The facility will feature two restaurants, a library, study rooms, a bike storage and wash area and external terraced sections.

The B-listed Scotway House building was formerly the Meadowside Shipyard Office, which lay derelict for years before being decimated by fire in 2016. The property was built in 1885 and used to be a drawing office for engineers at shipbuilding firm D&W Henderson.

GRAHAM is delivering the project for Structured House Group, with a planned completion date of August 2019.

Gary Holmes, Scotland MD at GRAHAM Construction said, “This is an exciting project to be undertaking, creating the next phase for this historic building. Once finished, it’ll be one of the West End’s premier student accommodation developments, housing 400 residents as well as a range of other useful and high quality services.

“It’s fantastic to be able to show school pupils the early stages of such a major site, hearing first-hand about the various exciting ways to find employment within the construction industry. Developing our workforce is a key goal for GRAHAM and something we place a huge amount of focus upon – with a significant number of current employees entering the company via this route.”