School students throughout Stoke-on-Trent made a constructive career move on Wednesday (Nov 17) when they visited Nu Build houses at Stoke-on-Trent College to find out about careers in construction and building and engineering services.

With skills shortages and unemployment such huge issues at the moment, the students eagerly looked round these innovative homes where they saw for themselves a new form of housing that's environmentally sound and quickly assembled.

Called Nu Build, the homes were manufactured in Germany then shipped over to the UK where they were constructed at the college within just two weeks, thus bringing together twin needs of greener construction and skilling-up the local workforce.

Said one keen school student Stephen Edwards, 15, of Newcastle under Lyme science college NCHS: "I'd love to work in construction. It was great to see inside the Nu Build houses and also see all the students training in construction." Though like most men his age Stephen enjoys computer games, he's also keen to get outside. "I like to be hands on instead of just sitting around. It's been great seeing all that the college has to offer and I hope to come here when I finish school," he added.

It's an attitude much cheered by the college's Director of Technology, Damian Hopkins who said: "We don't just run courses at Stoke-on-Trent College, we try to get our students into apprenticeships so that when they leave us they have a career.

"That's why we opened our doors to all the local schools. To show students there's an exciting career in construction and building and engineering services for a whole range of abilities. The Nu Build houses may look very ordinary but there's a lot going on underneath the surface with eco-friendly heating systems, lighting and maintenance."

Nu Build was funded and supported by Stoke-on-Trent City Council and RENEW which together with many other local and national partners developed the programme to showcase modern methods of construction to meet the Government's objective to make all new homes carbon neutral by 2016.

Councillor Brian Ward, Stoke-on-Trent City Council cabinet member for housing, planning and transportation, said: "It was wonderful to see today's school students taking such a keen interest in the Nu Build houses. This is the next generation helping to build their own future which will be a much greener, more environmentally friendly one.

"I do hope some of the students who visited the Nu Build houses return to study at the college when they finish their school studies." 

As well as looking round the houses and the John Seddon Building to observe how future construction engineers are trained, the students took part in an interactive quiz with all the winners going into a draw for which the prize was a voucher for the Potteries Centre.

Stoke-on-Trent College is the only college in the country to offer assembled units on site for training purposes. The site in Burslem is the ideal location as Stoke-on-Trent College is a Centre of Vocational Excellence for construction training.

Schools which visited the Nu Build houses were: Birches Head High School, Thistley Hough High School, Penkhull, Haywood High School, Burslem and Newcastle Community High School.