Site visit provides ‘real life experience’ for French apprentices

Students from L’école d’ingénieurs CESI gain a valuable insight into the into the civil engineering industry during a visit to SEGRO Logistics Park East Midlands Gateway

At the end of May, a group of 35 construction engineering apprentices and two of their tutors from the French institute L’école d’ingénieurs CESI (CESI) visited the 700-acre SEGRO Logistics Park East Midlands Gateway (EMG), as part of a week long educational stay in the UK designed to enhance their understanding of the civil engineering industry.

When approached, Winvic Construction Limited jumped at the chance to host the French delegation, who were keen to visit key developments in the area, to gain a detailed insight into how a civil engineering construction site is run to help the students to match theory with practice.

On arrival, Winvic’s Design Manager Giles Taylor welcomed the group giving them an overview of the scheme which is nearly half way through its three year programme and of Winvic’s involvement in the nationally significant infrastructure project (NSIP) as the principal contractor for contracts one and two. This was then followed by a presentation from Hydrock Consulting’s Ian Gardner on the geotechnical aspects of the development.

“Our students will undoubtedly have benefited from being able to apply lessons learnt during the visit to the projects and assignments that they are currently working on.”

Zineb Bajja, Tutor, CESI

The students were then taken on a personal guided tour of the site, which has a total area of 1.09 square miles, by Winvic’s project teams. This gave the students the opportunity to ask questions and to appreciate the scale of the project, which has planning consent for up to 6 million square feet of logistics accommodation and will incorporate a 50-acre Strategic Rail Freight Interchange (SRFI), with a rail freight terminal capable of handling up to sixteen 775m freight trains per day.

Frank Hayes, Project Manager on EMG Plot 1, a 1.3 million sq ft warehouse with three floors which is currently in the middle of its eight week steel erection programme, commented “It was nice to share the workings of the project with such bright students and to demonstrate how a project of this scale is planned and executed, which I am sure will be a great help to the students when it comes to their academic and practical learning.”

After a long walk and a spot of lunch, Nick Lowe from engineers BWB Consulting talked to the group about the site’s infrastructural impact and environmental considerations.

Zineb Bajja a tutor from CESI said “We are extremely grateful to Winvic for enabling us to gain a first-hand insight into the interesting and vast East Midlands Gateway project. Our students will undoubtedly have benefited from being able to apply lessons learnt during the visit to the projects and assignments that they are currently working on.”

At Winvic we are always looking at ways we can work together with educational establishments and other partner organisations to make a positive impression amongst the next generation of construction professionals and this latest collaboration with L’école d’ingénieurs CESI is a shining example of how such partnership activities can have a positive impact on the future of the construction industry.