In 2022, BESIX Foundation introduced the ‘KiddyBuild in class’ programme as another of BESIX Foundation’s home-made flagship projects. It involves two BESIX volunteers visiting classrooms for a morning or an afternoon to introduce schoolchildren to the ins and outs of the construction world. The sessions are centred around a BESIX Foundation patented boardgame, ‘Construction Heroes’.
Last year, ten KiddyBuild in class sessions were organised with 199 children. BESIX Foundation also held its first ‘Discovery Build’ in-class sessions, targeting secondary school youngsters. Both programmes are proposed to schools exercising positive discrimination to foster greater equality between children.
More volunteers needed
This year, BESIX Foundation aims to further develop the KiddyBuild and Discovery Build initiatives in Belgium for both primary and secondary school youngsters and to extend the concept to other countries of the group such as France and the Netherlands.
Schools are very eager to organise such sessions for their pupils. So BESIX Foundation is constantly looking for employees who are willing to give some of their time to animate these sessions around the board game.
"The activities offered by BESIX are learning tools that can help children solve problems in a much more flexible, creative and collaborative way. The children learn a whole new language and experience something totally new. And the presence of skilled people from the business world in the classroom enriches the courses. The kids love it and so do we." – Nadia Moro, 5th and 6th grade teacher, Bruyères-Horta primary school in Brussels.
What do you need to do?
If you work in Belgium, France or the Netherlands, contact BESIX Foundation at info@besixfoundation.com to express your interest. You will be invited to a one-hour information meeting. Sessions take half a day and are animated by two persons, of which one needs to have a technical background. At start-up, you will be expected to leave your office or your building site during two mornings or afternoons: one to follow a session with more experienced colleagues (‘watch and learn’) and one to lead your own session with a colleague. Once trained, every volunteer is asked to animate one (or two) session(s) a year. Watch this video to know even more about KiddyBuild in class:
KiddyBuild in class and Discovery Build are spin-offs of the KiddyBuild programme, which has been inviting children on a field trip to a construction site since 2014. As opening a building site requires a lot of preparation and logistics, the classroom sessions are another way to achieve the same objective of teaching children about the trades required to get a building off the ground.
Still in doubt?
Read what our colleague Abdellah Touzani, Engineer at BESIX Group, thinks of this initiative:
"I find these activities very rewarding. Talking about your job with these young pupils lets you take a step back and reminds you of what motivates you every day. I've always enjoyed talking about my job, the positive and negative aspects of our work, because I feel privileged to be able to do what I love every day. Not everyone is so lucky, and some young people have little idea of the various careers open to them. Construction trades, for instance, are relatively unknown. In my mind, we can have a significant impact on the future of many pupils by doing something that is actually rather easy and requires little investment in time. Doing these things together with a colleague is also very enjoyable, especially as we complement each other.”
Or watch this video!
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