PRESS RELEASE: Deeley Group Sign Up To Support On-Demand Virtual Work Experience

• As educators juggle the logistics of operating for the new year, over 3 million students will be thinking about their futures in the new normal
• Work experience likely to remain disrupted as remote working and social distancing remain in place during lockdown and vaccine rollout
• On-demand Virtual Work Experience allows pupils to access real-world built environment tasks at any time
• Government’s BuildBackBetter commitment offers an opportunity to showcase the industry to young people over the next 10 years

LONDON, UK: Built Environment Skills in Schools (BESS) today announced that Deeley Group, the renowned Coventry-based construction and development firm, has added a task to the BESS on-demand Virtual Work Experience platform. As part of Deeley Group’s commitment to the future workforce of the construction industry, the company has decided to showcase a project that demonstrates local redevelopment and the challenges of effective site management.

Edward Hudson, Business Development Manager at Deeley Group, said, “We were excited to create a 45-minute virtual work experience task that students all around the UK can complete in their own time and learn more about the work we do. We are so proud of the exciting and complex projects we deliver for our clients, but sometimes it can be difficult to explain what we do to young people. BESS has built a great platform to support its extensive network of schools, and it was a no-brainer for us to use our own in-house skills and expertise to develop a challenging student task.”

Hosted on the BESS Virtual Work Experience platform, Deeley Group’s task will join other practical, real-world challenges that allow students to explore the broad scope of the construction industry without having to pre-select any discipline or curriculum subject to get started. In addition to the inspiring insight into Deeley Group’s work, their task also incorporates employability skills to support young people into the world of work.

Kathryn Lennon-Johnson, founder of BESS, said, “It’s such an honour to have a respected business like Deeley Group supporting this initiative. Our on-demand virtual work experience platform allows young people to explore the construction industry at their own pace while ensuring they are completely safeguarded. Creating new housing and retail is such an important investment for communities, and allowing young people to be part of a real project helps to bring the industry to life.”

Virtual work experience solutions can provide evidence for schools towards the compulsory Gatsby Benchmarks including the requirements to learn from labour market information, link curriculum learning to careers, provide experience of workplaces, and deliver engaging student encounters with employers and employees. The BESS on-demand Virtual Work Experience platform is promoted into over 4,000 UK senior schools and offers unrestricted use by students.

The platform can be accessed at https://virtualworkexperience.beskillsinschools.co.uk