Over 3,000 young Londoners have had the opportunity to meet and chat with a wide range of people working in construction and infrastructure as part of the Building Future London project.
The project was launched in May 2022 by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, with support from Primary Futures, the aspiration-raising programme run by the Education and Employers charity, as well as the Mayor’s London Infrastructure Group (LIG) and Workforce Integration Network (WIN). Primary-aged children from across London had the chance to find out more about a range of different jobs, including many within the green sector. The volunteers involved in the project came from a range of employers including Transport for London, Balfour Beatty and Virgin Media.
Last week, children, teachers, volunteers and members of the Mayor of London’s Infrastructure Group gathered together at City Hall to celebrate the impact of the Building Future London project.
The celebration event kicked off with an inspiring speech from Muyiwa Oki, the first black president-elect of RIBA, where he discussed what inspired him to become an architect and the importance of having a dream and a role model. The winners of the ‘Jobs of the Future’ competition were then invited onto the stage to collect their prizes and to share their own feelings about taking part in the project.
Many pupils spoke about how they had enjoyed finding out about jobs they’d never heard of before or jobs they didn’t realise they could do. Learning more about the city they live in and its built environment was clearly something the pupils felt passionate about, with one pupil summing up the feeling of the project saying, “London is our city, and we must all work to build a brighter future”.
Click the image above to hear more about the celebration event and to see more photos from the day.
Find out more
See the Building Future London overview for details of the project’s aims and outcomes.