National Career Development Month
About Dan…
Dan has been employed with Amiri for 3 years and has carried out various roles within the business to help widen his knowledge of the Construction process. He achieved a Distinction+ in his ONC at Southampton City College and is now attending Southampton Solent University on day release doing his HNC Construction Management course.
In the course of his training Dan has carried out work experience with HNW Architects, this has helped Dan gain a wider knowledge of CAD, BIM, Architectural practice and understanding the concepts of design.
He has also spent time with MLM Fire and Building Control which has helped Dan to learn about building regulations and approved documents. Dan was also mentored by HPW Architects to help with his knowledge in sustainability within the Construction Industry. Dan feels that since carrying out these industry-led work placements it has helped him gain and apply knowledge within Construction that he wouldn’t necessarily learn in the classroom.
Before starting with Amiri, Dan went to Kenya, volunteering to help build a house for a family and a toilet block for school. Built out of Kenyan materials and with the Kenyan building look in mind. Dan stayed out in Kenya for three months to complete the volunteer programme and feels it helped cement his love for Construction and the diversity that it brings to the world.
An interview with Dan…
How do you feel the Construction Management apprenticeship has helped you? It has been good to get first-hand experience of all the aspects that make up construction rather than reading from a text book. It has definitely been beneficial to be in a work placement whilst learning. This has been reflected in the grades I have achieved throughout all my modules at College and now University.
What are you currently working on now?
I’m currently working in Amiri Head office at Segensworth, with the Estimating and Preconstruction team helping with compiling tenders . Previously I have been site based on Brockhurst Gate Retail Park, Buckmore Park, Bizspace and Countess of Brecknock during their Construction. I have recently had my first win on a tender which we are due to start on site early next year.
How are you finding being in higher education alongside working? I have felt the benefit of working and learning at the same time. Whilst there has been a lot of assignments to do alongside the day job, being in an office environment helps with my modules as I can ask about my assignments and any technical questions.
What is your end goal? I’d like to be a Project Manager.
What made you want to go into construction? I have always wanted to be in Construction, it has related well with the subjects I enjoyed in school, like maths and physics. I saw the apprenticeship with Amiri and was not wanting to go to university straight away so I saw it as a good opportunity and went for it. I’ve always liked buildings and in particular, football stadiums. I find it interesting to find out how they are built and why they don’t fall over.
What is your favourite thing about construction so far? This sounds a bit strange, but I really like concrete. It is such an interesting chemical reaction, there is so much you can do to it and it can hold so much weight when designed and reinforced properly.
I also like the diversity that you come across working in Construction. Every project is different and there are always new problems to solve. You will never know everything in Construction so it is nice to always be learning. I am really keen on the sustainability side to Construction as it’s interesting, constantly evolving and I’m excited to see what direction it will take in the future.
Have you found it helpful being in the estimating team?
I have found it really helpful to learn about programming and planning at tender stage, A tender doesn’t come out with a rule book and you have such a limited time to put together costs, programme and methodology all the while demonstrating why we are the right business to do it.
