25/09/2026
What a three days at Lincolnshire Construction and Engineering Week 2026 in Lincolnshire.
Across Tuesday to Thursday, Darren Watkinson and Lesley Simpson from our Skills Academies team have been giving young people the chance to experience construction rather than simply hear about it.
And the response has been fantastic.
Our hands-on block paving activity gave pupils the opportunity to get stuck into something completely different from the usual classroom environment.
But while they were laying paving, they were also building something else entirely.
Communication. Teamwork. Measuring. Planning. Problem-solving. Confidence.
Across 12 practical sessions, our team watched pupils work together, figure things out, learn from one another and get a genuine taste of what practical construction skills can involve.
And perhaps the biggest endorsement?
Schools didnโt just enjoy it.
They want more of it.
Several have asked whether our team could visit their schools to deliver similar practical sessions. Others were so impressed by the concept that they want to recreate the activity themselves, requesting the supporting literature and resources we developed to help bring it into their own provision.
That tells us something important.
When careers education becomes tangible, young people engage differently.
They are not simply being told that construction offers opportunities. They are experiencing the skills behind those opportunities for themselves.
The three days have also opened up some extremely valuable conversations beyond the activity itself.
Weโve strengthened relationships and made new connections with schools, Abbey Access Training, Lincoln College, CITB and other organisations, exploring how we could work together and creating the foundations for future partnerships.
For our Lincolnshire Skills Academy, that matters enormously.
We want young people, schools and communities across the region to understand just how broad the opportunities within construction can be, and to see skilled construction careers as exactly what they are: practical, professional, rewarding careers with real progression behind them.
Events like this help us start those conversations much earlier.
A huge thank you to Darren and Lesley for the energy, commitment and dedication. Delivering session after session, engaging with hundreds of young people and teaching staff, building relationships and representing our Skills Academies with such enthusiasm takes some doing.
The photographs may show the block paving.
But the real result is in the conversations that now continue after the event.
Schools wanting us to come in.
Teachers wanting our resources.
Young people discovering skills they didnโt know they had.
And new partnerships beginning to take shape.
Thatโs a pretty good three daysโ work.๐
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