The visit took place at the housebuilder’s head office, in Stepps, and gave primary five and six pupils the chance to take part in an interactive session with staff, participating in workshops before taking a tour of nearby development Earls Rise.

It was arranged by Barratt Developments in conjunction with Launch Foods, a charity which has been supported by Barratt Homes West Scotland in the past through multiple fundraising initiatives. The organisation works with schools in Glasgow like North Woodside-based St Joesph’s to promote sustainability and to prevent food from going to landfill, ensuring it isn’t wasted.

Barratt West Scotland development director, Stuart Dodson, and Launch Foods founder, Craig Johnson, met with youngsters along with senior land manager, Sara Rushworth, to teach them about the various roles in housebuilding including land buyers, architects, accountants, surveyors, site managers, joiners and electricians, before having a walkthrough of the office.

The students then visited local Barratt development, Earls Rise, and got to look around the sales centre, show home and construction site with Contracts Manager, John Graham and senior sales adviser, Laura Ross.

Stuart Dodson, development director at Barratt Developments West Scotland, said: “We were thrilled to welcome pupils from St Joseph’s to our head office, with hopes of inspiring them to one day consider a career in housebuilding. We made the experience as fun as possible by keeping it interactive, introducing them to employees from every part of the business. It was also great to collaborate with Launch Foods to organise the visit, a charity we continue to support for all the amazing work it does.”

Glasgow-based social enterprise Launch Foods provides children living in poverty with nutritious meals. The charity has funded over 750,000 free meals and has now opened Launch Coffee in the city centre, with proceeds helping to feed 300 children each day. Launch Foods’ food truck delivers free hot meals across Glasgow to a number of primary schools.

Craig Johnson, Launch Foods founder, said: “Working with Barratt to arrange the careers day was extremely rewarding. St Joseph’s is one of the many schools we continue to support and it was great to see the children participate in workshops and learn a thing or two about housebuilding. We hope everyone enjoyed lunch and we’d love to team up with Barratt for similar initiatives in the future.”

Ciara Lynch, acting principal teacher at St Joseph’s Primary School, said: “Our pupils absolutely loved visiting Barratt’s head office to learn about the various roles and career pathways open to them. They had a lot of fun speaking to the staff and particularly enjoyed the visit to Earls Rise. Not everyone is lucky enough to get a behind-the-scenes look to see how the housebuilding industry works and it was great of the Barratt team to take time away from their busy schedules.”