After celebrating their centenary at the Suffolk Show last year, Eastern Education Group continue to build for the future by putting construction centre stage at Trinity Park.
The organisation that includes three colleges, a university centre, primary and SEND schools as well as learning centres across Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire is taking over the skills zone this year.
As part of that, interactive and immersive activities celebrating all of the trades including bricklaying, carpentry and plumbing took place, where youngsters got the chance to learn about everything from heritage skills to current trends. Painting and decorators created pieces using the colour Suffolk pink.
(Last year, the group was named the Construction Technical Excellence College (CTEC) for the East of England. It is just one of just ten colleges nationally selected to lead the future of construction training in a £100 million government-backed initiative).
Mark Tree is the Assistant CTEC Principal at Eastern Education Group. He said: “Anybody can get involved in any discipline at any level is the message we want to get across. You can be an artist or an architecture, it doesn’t matter what background you have, there is a role for you in the built environment.”
The college also took over Skills Zone at this year’s show where students and staff came together to offer the thousands of people who visit Trinity Park, the chance to take part in a variety of hands-on activities. From learning about CPR to discovering hi-tech careers, the educational establishment that supports over 15,000 people across four counties filled a 100-metre space by showcasing everything that it offers.
Elsewhere, One Sixth Form College students promoted STEM careers by showing magic science tricks. There was also a mock operating theatre, and a new £100k simulator van that gave people of all ages the chance to take part in immersive experiences that range from the chance to drive a bulldozer to finding out about the journey of an atom via a VR headset.
Organiser of show activities for Eastern Education Group is Carrie Edwards. She said: “the first day has gone brilliantly. We can’t wait for day two.”
