As part of the National Construction Week celebrations, Walsall Education Business Partnership and CITB Construction Skills, co-ordinated a whole programme of activities for Walsall students. The Increased Flexibility Programme (IFP) is a DfES initiative designed to enable school students to 'sample' vocational programmes while they are still at school before deciding upon - and sticking to - their ultimate choice. Walsall EBP, in partnership with Walsall's New Deal for Communities and Shaylor Construction, co-ordinated a site visit for IFP students from Walsall College of Arts and Technology to the Blakenall Village Centre to make a photographic record of its progress before the official opening in July 2005. In order to add value to this, the students were also able to compare and contrast this experience with a further site visit, this time in partnership with Moss Construction, to the new accommodation block at the Wolverhampton University Walsall Campus.

In partnership with Walsall's New Deal for Communities, the Walsall MBC Family Learning & Study Support Team and the charity 'Bees &Trees', Walsall EBP offered pupils in two schools the chance to build a one-third scale Tudor House, including wattle and daub, during and after school with parents, teachers and school governors. Again in partnership with Walsall 's New Deal for Communities, Walsall EBP provided an Architecture Workshops Association-led activity using only elastic bands and wooden dowelling for groups of children to build their own theatre and experience what it would have been like to attend a Tudor theatre.

To link to National Construction Week, Walsall EBP worked with Walsall's New Deal, Shaylor Construction Ltd, and CITB Construction Skills in launching a Community Safety Week. Local residents had the opportunity to be consulted on issues relating to the regeneration projects within the New Deal area as well as take part in Community Safety workshops and tours around the new Blakenall Village Centre which is currently under construction.

Teams of sixth form students from a number of Walsall schools, supported by Construction Ambassadors from Taylor Woodrow, recently took part in the Airport Challenge, a construction enterprise competition, where they are asked to design enhanced facilities for people with disabilities using plans from terminal 4 at Heathrow Airport. The winners on the day were the team from the Pool Hayes / Sneyd Post 16 Partnership.

More than 100 Walsall Year 10 students applied to join a construction course organised by the Walsall Housing Group and Walsall Education Business Partnership.

The 'Building Futures' project, which is funded by the Black Country Learning and Skills Council, gives 30 students a one-day a week training programme in either bricklaying, carpentry, electrical installation or plumbing, at WHG's Skills Centre in Walsall.

The aim of the programme is to address some of the skills shortage areas in the construction industry. It is hoped the majority of students on the course will progress onto the WHG apprenticeship programme when they leave school. Walsall EBP recruited the students from local secondary schools and arranged practice interviews for all of the course participants.

"The response to the course has surprised even us. It has been very popular with students because it offers experience and qualifications not available to them in school."
Lorenzo Cosco, Walsall EBP

'Girl Power' was the order of the day when students from Shelfield Sports Community College donned hard hats and got to grips with brick laying, roofing and block paving

The group were taking part in a construction taster day for girls organised by Walsall EBP at the Construction Industry Training Board's (CITB) national college in Kings Norton, Birmingham. The 14 year old girls followed a varied programme for the day including erecting a mobile tower, fixing tile laths and tiles to a roof, and had a go at block paving and brick laying.

Mike Wainwright, from CITB Construction Skills Said:
"It is all about building a better range of opportunities for women in the construction industry. We hope that now the girls have had a 'hands-on' taste of different jobs in the industry, they might consider further training."