Cooks Lane, Sittingbourne

During half term, the New House Youth Centre hosted a Graffiti Work Shop inviting young people to attend a professional graffiti art class.

The day was great fun, and everyone participated in creating a large piece of art work that will be displayed at the new skate park in Sittingbourne.

ENGIE were there to support the event and provide a Pizza Hut lunch for everyone.

ENGIE were delighted to be able to invite 11 construction students from Sheppey College to attend a certified QNUK Health and Safety Level 1 Test with our ENGIE Trainer, Mick Doyle.

The day was a great success with all 11 students passing the test. This will allow them to move forward in carrying out a touch screen CSCS Test which ENGIE will fund to enable the students to achieve their CSCS Cards.

Once the students receive their CSCS cards, ENGIE can then arrange for them to attend work experience on the Cooks Lane project and organise possible apprenticeship opportunities with our subcontractors.

Careers course to boost employment skills for young people

Young people in Kent are set to benefit from a careers programme designed to help them into employment.

The Kickstart course is being run by Sanctuary Supported Living in partnership with construction firm ENGIE across the east of the county.

It is aimed at 16 to 25-year olds in Canterbury, Swale and Thanet who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, including children in care and care leavers.

Residents from Sanctuary Supported Living schemes in both Sittingbourne and Sheerness were introduced to the programme this month, which offers routes into employment, at a taster event with ENGIE staff.

They learned about different roles within the construction industry, routes into career paths such as apprenticeships, and were given the opportunity to sign up for work experience placements.

The group were also given a tour of the Cooks Lane site in Sittingbourne where Sanctuary Homes is building 243 new properties over the next three years.

Residents going on to complete the Kickstart course will then take part in three days of mentoring when they will be able to get guidance on CV writing and interview technique.

Fiona Lovelock, Sanctuary Supported Living’s Service Development Manager, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for young people to find out more about potential careers and improve their employability skills, which are vital for them in their journey towards living independently.

“We hope this is just the start of a fruitful partnership with ENGIE that will see even more of our residents benefit.”

Lorraine McMullen, Community Investment Manager from ENGIE, commented: “The Kickstart programme has a proven track record of helping people into employment and we are looking forward to working with the young people from Sanctuary Supported Living.”

After presenting a health and safety assembly back in November 2019, ENGIE set Kemsley Academy a poster competition which would involve the pupils in creating a poster to promote health and safety.

Today we returned to the school to hand out prizes to the winning posters which were judged by the schools Eco Team.

1 pupil from each year group won a prize which consisted of art and craft gifts.

Congratulations to the pupils that created the winning posters!

Congratulations to our Employees of the Month for January 2020.

Supervisor of the Month; Tiberiu Mandiuc – Abbey Pynfords

Operative of the Month; Dave Frostick – Gallagher

Tiberiu Mandiuc has lead his operatives to have no safety issues, and provide good house keeping through out since working on the Cooks Lane site. He has also ensured that his team are finishing ahead of program.

Dave Frostick has worked on the Cooks Lane site since the start of the project, and has always been aware and conscious of the health and safety on site.

Both were rewarded with a £20 Love2Shop voucher.

Our Cooks Lane team in Sittingbourne was delighted to welcome construction staff from Sheppey College in Kent, to support their on-going learning and development.

Six lecturers were given a tour of the site, as well as a site induction and "tool box talk". Our visitors were also provided with architectural drawings of the development which they will us as "live" examples for classroom learning.

The experience is intended to ensure that staff are up to date with industry standards, so that Sheppey College students are taught what to expect in the real working world.

"The on-site session was a practical way of helping to keep lecturers up to date with current induction practice and general health and safety. it is common for young people to start work with little knowledge of the standards and behaviours expected on a construction site, so it is good to be able to share knowledge which can be passed on to better prepare new entrants into the industry." Andy Crouch, Project Manager, ENGIE

The visit is part of a programme of activities that the ENGIE team in Cooks Lane is delivering in partnership with Sheppey College to support local students into the construction industry.

Are you interested in construction?

Discover how the communities you live in are shaped and constructed by an industry with a diverse range of career paths to offer.

The nationwide Construction Open Doors initiative runs from the 16^th to 21^st Marc 2020 and offers a unique chance to go behind the scenes of live construction sites, offices, factories and training centers across Great Britain.

ENGIE is one of many companies participating in the initiative, opening the Cooks Lane site to the public on Tuesday 17^th March 2020.

If you are interested in visiting our site, or any others across the UK, you can book a place on a guided tour by visiting the Open Doors website: www.opendoors.construction

The East Kent Apprenticeship Awards celebrate local talent as well as recognising business and organisations that provide apprentices with the opportunity to shine.

As one of the proud sponsors of the 2020 awards, we were honoured to be a part of the judging panel to choose this year’s winners. The awards will be presented at a gala dinner later this month.

https://www.eka-awards.co.uk/

It was great to receive such positive feed back from the event organiser.....

In 2019 the Cooks Lane project volunteered a total of 22 hours, engaged with a total of 1,196 students, and made a significant contribution to the local community and surrounding areas.

Looking back at our Community Achievements in 2019.

• Volunteering our time at Milton Creek Country Park.
• Facilitating a variety of training courses in our Cooks Lane site office for local students and subcontractors.
• Organise and mentor sessions at both Sittingbourne and Sheerness Job Centre. Holding mock interviews and helping young people to write CVs.
• Hold Health & Safety Assemblies and Building Challenges at 3 different primary schools in Sittingbourne.
• Donated £500 worth of gardening tools to Groundwork South charity located in Gravesend.
• Present career presentations at 2 secondary schools in both Sittingbourne and Sheerness.
• Volunteer our time for 2 days at Wildwood Animal Park in Herne Bay.
• Donated and planted 200 trees at Milton Creek Country Park.
• Took part in a careers event at a secondary school in Faversham.
• Volunteer our time at The Bob Fowler Community Allotment in Milton.
• Donated food and toiletries to the Swale Food Bank in Sittingbourne.

Coming into the New Year it has been challenging due to recent weather conditions, however we have been able to progress with the timber frame and ground works when the weather has been reasonable.

We will be commencing the piling works to the Cooks Lane apartments in early March.

Works are due to progress to the offsite highway works tying the project into Cooks Lane.

Our mains water, gas and electric will be starting in early February and roofing works are currently in progress.

Brickwork has started and cladding is due to follow suit.