Bouygues has used the CIOB Minecraft initiative to run a competition with local schools in Birmingham. Five schools took part in the challenge in June with final judging taking place in November. Bouygues is aiming for the competition to become national in 2019.
Bouygues’ “Future City Challenge”, incorporating the CIOB “Craft your Future” initiative, will form the basis for the final presentations when judges will mark five deliverables the teams have to produce.
Craft your Future, developed by the CIOB, is a construction game aimed at 12-14-year-olds that takes place in Minecraft. Through it young learners explore the methods and skills to become a construction manager.
Utilising four Minecraft Education Lessons, students encounter a variety of problems that reflect construction challenges in cities today. The lessons take place in Newtown, a specially created virtual city in Minecraft, to design, plan, collaborate and build solutions that develop a sustainable future for all its citizens. Exercises also include real life scenarios like the challenge of restoring Battersea Power Station.
Minecraft allows students to design and create cities
The final Bouygues competition participants, aged 11 to 15, in teams of three or four, will be scored on five tasks, including designing a centrepiece building of the virtual city, model building, creating a video blog and a presentation.
Shazad Ahmad, corporate responsibility manager at Bouygues North & Midlands, says the competition is part of the constructor’s wider commitment to deliver social value. “We promote the sector and the opportunities it offers to local schools and this has typically taken the form of careers fairs, guest lectures and curriculum workshops.
“Bouygues UK developed this initiative to encourage students to consider STEM subjects and to look at the huge diversity of careers available within the construction sector. We hope the competition will leave a lasting impression on the students taking part.”
