To celebrate Scottish Careers Week, Winchburgh Developments Limited (WDL) West Lothian College and Winchburgh Academy have joined together to launch a 16 week \u2018Developing Winchburgh\u2019 Schools Partnership. The new mentoring programme aims to inform and inspire the new S1 intake of school pupils at the recently completed, Winchburgh Academy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Winchburgh Academy\u2019s new schools programme will provide practical insights into what it takes to work in the jobs required to deliver a vast masterplan like Winchburgh\u2019s. The pupils will hear from key experts working daily on the project, who will give an insight into the breadth and types of roles that contribute to making Winchburgh\u2019s vision a reality. The programme will cover many different professions including planners, lawyers, architects, and engineers to name a few. Each discipline will be covered in-depth with opportunities for school pupils to attend site visits and take part in round table discussions where they can question the experts over the course of the 16 weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Launching the new schools programme, John Hamilton, Chief Executive of Winchburgh Developments, told the audience of peers and school pupils: \u201cThe ultimate aim of this partnership programme with Winchburgh Academy and West Lothian College to inspire Winchburgh\u2019 s future talent by showing that not everyone needs five A\u2019s to kickstart exciting careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFrom what I\u2019ve witnessed today, the S1 pupils at Winchburgh Academy don\u2019t need too much encouragement. It’s brilliant to see this level of energy and interest from the pupils in the developing village around them. I\u2019m delighted we are able to showcase roles outside of the traditional trades and visit our sites to highlight how they might get involved now, and in the future, to help foster a strong and inclusive community in Winchburgh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
S1 pupil, Numaira, from Winchburgh, thanked the team on behalf of the students: \u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to hearing about the jobs and skills that are involved in the building going on around us. Some of us might even find our future careers. We\u2019re really excited about getting out on site to find out more. We\u2019re really looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a Q&A session following presentations, the pupils put the team of professionals on the spot with questions asking about salaries, site progress and provenance of house builders. One pupil asked, \u201chow big will Winchburgh be once it\u2019s complete?\u201d. To which Robin Matthew, Planning Consultant, relayed the scale of the project explaining, \u201cIt will be as big as 500 football pitches. It\u2019s incredible to think of the scale. A long-term project that will eventually see the population rise from 2,000 to 13,000.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All 54 of Winchburgh Academy\u2019s school pupils took part in the launch event, which was organised by Colin Kerr, Deputy Head Teacher at Winchburgh Academy, who added his support: \u201cWe are really pleased to be working in partnership with Winchburgh Developments and West Lothian College in an exciting new curriculum initiative. Their support is providing us with opportunities to design our curriculum in relation to our community and context taking into account local labour market intelligence, to further develop employability skills and health and well-being of our S1 students. Working in partnership with them as a new school lets us work creatively to develop both multi-and interdisciplinary learning opportunities for our students. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership for the benefit of the young people in Winchburgh Academy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outlining West Lothian College\u2019s involvement, Simon Earp, Vice Principal, said: \u201cWe\u2019re delighted to be a partner in this great initiative. The collaboration of partners has produced such an innovative approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs well as delivering a great learning opportunity for the students, the partnership will enable new career pathways to be developed, which will help Winchburgh students to acquire the future skills that are in so much demand by the industry and go on to really fulfilling and rewarding careers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Winchburgh Academy is one of three schools recently completed through a \u00a361 million tripartite partnership agreement between Winchburgh Developments Ltd. West Lothian Council and Hub South East, to provide a learning campus adjacent to the new 85-acre Auldcathie District Park, including a sports centre and health and wellbeing hub which will open to the public in January 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Winchburgh Academy opened to pupils this August for the start of the new 2022 Autumn term. With a rollcall of just 54 pupils, the school is set to grow organically as the development evolves with the Council committed to occupying the building each year from S1 \u2013 S6. Sitting alongside Winchburgh Academy is Holy Family Primary School with a new pre-school nursery, and a second (denominational) high school, Sinclair Academy, planning to open Autumn next year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Full list of companies taking part in the \u2018Developing Winchburgh\u2019 Schools Partnership: Pinsent Masons, Cala, Ramboll, Open Optimised Environments, PMR Leisure, Scottish Water, I & H Brown, Scottish Water, RJ McLeod, and PPCA town planning<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow the story online #ScotCareersWeek22<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To celebrate Scottish Careers Week, Winchburgh Developments Limited (WDL) West Lothian College and Winchburgh Academy have joined together to launch a 16 week \u2018Developing Winchburgh\u2019 Schools Partnership. The new mentoring…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n