PUPILS at Ponteland High School were given the opportunity to experience a career in house building, with an activities day hosted by Barratt Homes.

Led by the group’s North-East’s development director Neil Milburn, the day gave pupils aged 13 and 14 the opportunity to explore the various career paths available in the sector, and saw them designing their own housing company and building a model house.

Activities on the day were split into two sections and included all aspects of branding and building.

Pupils were first split into groups and asked to develop a name, logo and slogan for their own housing company and present it to the group.

Afterwards, the groups were asked to designate roles to each member of the team, including drivers, builders and site managers, before being asked to organise and carry out the build of a model house with support from the Barratt team.

Neil said: “There is so much more to this industry than bricks and mortar and young people don’t always realise that.

“We wanted to use this time to show pupils at Ponteland High School just how much scope there is for a career in house building, whether that be in marketing, planning or construction.

“Overall the day was a real success and it was fantastic to see how engaged the pupils were with the activities.”