Hobson & Porter is delighted to announce that it was the winner in the ‘Best Educational Building’ category at the recent LABC Building Excellence Awards North and East Yorkshire 2018 on Wednesday 13th June.

The award was given for Norton Community Primary Satellite School, recognising ‘building excellence in the delivery of outstanding construction and workmanship’. The Hull-based construction firm was contracted by North Yorkshire County Council to enlarge Norton Community Primary School for the increasing number of pupils.

The new school building contains six classrooms for pupils in years 5 and 6, along with all the other facilities required for a successful modern school including reception, library, staff room and administration area, IT suite, kitchen and dining area and teaching kitchen, and toilet block.

The project made the headlines during enabling works, when a large number of historic artefacts were unearthed. They support the existence of a Roman fort and a significant development in what is now the northern part of Norton. An archaeological team was on site during much of the construction of the satellite school and the site team had to carefully undertake its work around this.

Hobson & Porter is building a successful record at the LABC (Local Authority Building Control) Building Excellence Awards, having previously been a finalist for Phase 1 of Riseholme Campus, a part of Bishop Burton College. The LABC Building Excellence Awards are the largest business to business awards in the UK and are open to anyone involved in a construction project where building control was provided by a local authority.

The 2018 awards were presented at a black-tie ceremony at the Principal York Hotel in York, which was hosted by TV presenter Nikki Chapman. Our award was collected by Contract Manager Gary Allen and Site Manager Dave McCorie, alongside Nick Brennan from the project’s architects, Align Property Partners. Congratulations to the site team at Norton Community Primary School on this fantastic achievement!

On 19th June 2018, an event was held at ERGO Centre, the new development at Bridgehead Business Park on the north side of the Humber Bridge, to raise awareness of the wide range of construction career opportunities available in the region.

The event was hosted by LMI Humber in association with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), Humber Training Group, Go Construct and Green Port Hull.

Hobson & Porter’s Employment & Skills Coordinator, Pauline Steele and Civil Engineer, Mark Young attended the event, which highlighted that 6.7% of employment in the Humber region is in construction. That represents one in every 16 jobs.

An event overview was given by representatives from East Riding Council and the CITB, followed by an understanding of the building process and the job roles involved in the different stages. There was also a session on how the industry can support careers in the curriculum, plus an opportunity for attendees to network. The event was attended by over 80 delegates from business, training providers, Job centre plus, careers advisors, schools and organisations helping people into work.

Pauline and Mark, with support from Pre-Construction Director Dan and Apprentice Harry. Dan and Harry joined the industry from a young age (Dan after studying an Architecture degree at university and Harry straight from school) and both shared their considerable experience with careers advisors and teachers at the event.

Janice Chattaway, CITB Advisor for the Humber, praised the team’s support: “I just wanted to say a huge thank you to Hobson & Porter for supporting the LMI event yesterday, it was really appreciated. It makes such a difference for people to hear real life stories from people working in the industry.

“It is a big commitment from your organisation in giving up your time but hopefully an investment that will make a difference in the future, encouraging more students to see construction as an exciting career choice.”

The Hull-headquartered construction company is currently running its Foundations initiative, which has the purpose of developing careers in construction and promoting industry sustainability. At any one time there are apprenticeships working either in the company’s major or minor works divisions.

The Hobson & Porter team based at Orsted’s site in Grimsby is benefitting from a collaboration which involves a health check from specialists at the local Oasis Health Club.

Hull-headquartered Hobson & Porter is part-way through a major project to extend Orsted’s onshore operations centre on Grimsby’s Royal Dock to service the world’s largest windfarms, Hornsea Projects One and Two. Hobson & Porter approached Oasis Health Club, also located on the Royal Dock, putting forward its project team to take part in a health screening initiative to find out how healthy members of the team are. Hobson & Porter joins a number of other local businesses which have taken part in this initiative.

Biometric screening is used to benchmark and evaluate changes in health status over time. It measures a wide range of physical characteristics from height and weight to body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, blood cholesterol and blood glucose through to visceral fat (the fat around vital organs) and metabolic age (a comparison of a person’s basal metabolic rate (BMR) and the average BMR for an age). Oasis Health Club has used Tanita Scales to carry out the measurements since November 2016 and is the only health club in the region to offer such a detailed analysis.

The team at Oasis Health Club recommends a specific course of action for each individual from Hobson & Porter’s project team based on the results of their health screening which has given them all an initial ‘health age’ based on their first results. They will be assessed again to ensure the changes they have made in their lifestyles are contributing to an improvement in their health and their ‘health age’. The screenings have produced an overwhelmingly positive response from the site team, with many members praising the initiative for encouraging major changes in their lifestyles. The success of the scheme has meant Hobson & Porter is now exploring using biometric screening in other parts of the business, while continuing to work closely with Oasis Health Club, using the fitness centre’s facilities.

The health screening added to Hobson & Porter’s Safe Works principles will ensure site personnel stay safe and healthy for the duration of the project for Orsted and hopefully far beyond.