National housebuilder, Vistry Group, recently welcomed students from across Gloucestershire to visit its new ‘Unwrapped Home’ at its Twigworth Green location, highlighting its merit as an educational tool for the housebuilding industry.
Building on the success of its predecessor in Wokingham, which the HBF’s managing director, Neil Jefferson, labelled ‘the envy of the industry’ last year, Vistry has developed the innovative new show home, in Twigworth, to enhance the customer journey and provide increased transparency for its new-build properties.
The ‘Unwrapped Home’ is so named as certain elements, such as walls, flooring or ceiling fixtures, are removed in places in order to reveal the inner workings of key construction features, including plumbing, electrical and structural components. Furthermore, each room in the property showcases information plaques, similar to those in museums or art galleries, with more detail on each component seen within.
The first students to visit arrived from Cirencester College as part of the new vocational T-Level qualification in Construction: Design, Surveying and Planning.
Chris Lythgoe, lecturer at Cirencester College, said, “When Vistry reached out to the College I responded straight away and signed us up. This is the first time I have come across this concept and I was immediately impressed by the unique learning opportunity it would provide our students with.
“The new T-Level qualification is to be the new ‘gold standard’ for vocational education and as such its ethos is to get students out of the classroom and into the real world. The Unwrapped Home is absolutely perfect for this and we only wish it featured on every site!”
Gloucester & Forest Alternative Provision School were also invited for a tour of the new show home, with Vistry’s learning and development co-ordinator, Rachel Irvin, present to answer questions regarding apprenticeships in the industry.
Russ Clemow, pathways lead at Gloucester & Forest AP School, said, “Our students thought the experience was fantastic. They enjoyed being taken around by industry professionals and seeing the house ‘opened up’. It was a great opportunity for them to get an insight into not only what goes on behind the walls, but also what different roles are available within the industry.”
The final institution to visit was Gloucestershire College, a former student of which now works at Vistry Group as a quantity surveyor, and was present for the college’s tour.
Luke Merriman, lecturer in construction at Gloucestershire College, said, “We are grateful for the opportunity to visit the new Unwrapped Home and receive a personal tour from not only Vistry’s staff, but one of our former students! The pathway from student at our College to working as a senior professional in the industry is something we are always looking to maximise – and this is an invaluable tool for doing just that.”
Darren Partridge, site manager for Twigworth Green, said: “It was great to engage with students from across the county and show them around our brand-new Unwrapped Home. It is such a unique and valuable tool to help future industry professionals better understand how our homes are constructed and get an insight into the varying stages of the build process.
“The Unwrapped Home was designed with both future professionals and our customers in mind – the ‘behind the scenes’ experience it offers is unlike any other across the housebuilding industry and we’re excited to continue innovating in the future.”
For more information on Vistry locations, visit www.bovishomes.co.uk and www.lindenhomes.co.uk.
