Hub East Central funds Design Engineer Construct Programme at Perth High School

hub East Central Scotland will fund and support the ‘Design Engineer Construct’ DEC learning programme for 20 pupils in S4 and 38 pupils in S3 at Perth High School this year.

The move follows the success of the inaugural initiative with hub at the school last year. The DEC learning programme was created by UK social business ‘Class of Your Own’ and hub East Central is providing industry expertise to support its successful delivery.

DEC is a STEAM focused curriculum that delivers an SCQF recognised qualification and actively encourages construction industry involvement in the programme. Last year hub East Central organised construction expert visits from site engineers, project managers, landscape architects, as well as BIM, commercial and community engagement managers.Pupils were set various individual projects throughout the academic year, each of their projects had to be presented to a panel of industry judges. The overall standard was extremely high, and the judges were extremely impressed with the attention to detail and the very high quality of the pupil’s designs.

Amanda Wright - Community Benefits and Social Value Manager hub East Central Scotland, said: “We organised visits from a plethora of construction and design experts as well as providing award prizes for the projects. The standard of work from the pupils was exemplary and it is a fantastic way for us to support and encourage young people to consider a career within the construction industry”

Perth High School teacher, Alan Boag, added: “I feel that through delivering the D.E.C course and the partnership that we have with hub East Central Scotland that the young people have developed an appreciation for the build environment. They have been given the opportunity to interact with engineering professionals and receive feedback about their work from them. I am excited about where this partnership could go in future and I know the young people are looking forward to engaging with the engineers as their new school building develops.”

Another teacher involved in the project, Veronica Lynch, added: “The pupils really enjoyed the competitions as it gave them the opportunity to work to deadlines, make presentations, and to speak to construction professionals about their ideas. The way the course has developed through working to a brief, creating initial ideas, generating computer graphics and making physical models has really given the students a good flavour of the breadth of approach that is needed in making a project successful. It has given them the confidence to present their ideas effectively to a team that give them constructive criticism and valuable feedback.”