When we talk about preparing young people for work, we often focus on getting them into a workplace.
Being there is valuable. But the strongest experiences also give young people something meaningful to do. They let them make decisions, solve problems, work with different people and adapt when things do not go entirely to plan.
That thinking led us to create Building the Brief, a programme developed with Activate Learning to provide construction T Level students with employer-led, real-world experience.
Bringing the workplace into the classroom
Construction presents a practical challenge. Live sites can usually accommodate only one or two students at a time, while colleges need opportunities for whole cohorts.
We needed another way to give more students sustained contact with our industry. So, we started with a different question: if we cannot bring every student onto a site, how can we bring more of the workplace to them?
Building the Brief gives students a realistic construction project to work through over five months. In teams, they develop their response to a brief while learning from Willmott Dixon specialists in design, estimating, health and safety, sustainability, marketing and social value.
There is no single correct answer. Instead, students see how every choice affects something else.
A great design still needs to be affordable and practical to build. A strong proposal must respond to the customer while considering safety, sustainability and the people who will use the building. Those priorities do not always sit neatly together.
Working through those tensions is where the experience becomes real and gives students a clearer picture of our industry and the range of roles required.
Creating space to learn
One of the most rewarding things has been watching the students grow in confidence.
They have to share responsibilities, manage their time and explain the thinking behind their choices. They also receive constructive feedback from people working in the industry.
As one student told us:
“It was challenging, but a really good opportunity. It helped us understand how we would solve problems in the real world.”
That combination of challenge and support is important. We want students to feel able to test ideas and make mistakes, while still experiencing the expectations of a professional environment.
And we are learning too. Our role as an employer is not to recreate the classroom or pretend we are teachers. It is to bring the curriculum to life.
Activate Learning understands its students and what they need to achieve. We bring current industry experience and colleagues who can talk honestly about their work. Combining the two creates something far more valuable than either of us could deliver alone.
A bridge into the workplace
Building the Brief does not replace an industry placement. It helps students prepare for one and make more of the opportunity when it comes.
It also gives employers a chance to see what students can do. At the end of the programme, teams present their proposals to Willmott Dixon and other local employers. Following the City of Oxford College cohort, seven of the 15 students secured their Year 2 industry placements with contractors invited to the presentations.
Across our first two cohorts, 32 students completed 3,360 hours of employer-led learning. The programme is now being extended to four more colleges, allowing us to test and improve the approach in different settings.
For other employers considering how to support T Levels, my advice is simple: start with what you can offer.
You do not necessarily need a large programme or weeks of someone’s time. A colleague sharing a real challenge, talking through a decision or giving thoughtful feedback can make the workplace feel much more accessible and help a young person understand how an industry actually works.
Because good work experience is not just about opening the doors to our sites and offices. It is about helping young people picture themselves walking through them.