Our construction training centre, our ‘Centre for Excellence’, is at the heart of our vision of providing skills training to young people in Zambia.

This year work at the Centre has focused on the construction of the Build It office. Covering 245m2, the new space will enable us to bring staff currently based off site, to join the rest of the team at the Centre.

Work began in March, just before Zambia’s partial lock-down due to COVID-19. The number of workers on site was reduced and a number of additional measures implemented to keep everyone safe as the build continued.

This project is particularly exciting as it’s our first ever double-storey building.

Work begins on the decking and temporary formwork

After a lot of preparation, it was time to cast the suspended concrete slab. 

Concrete was poured into the formwork, encasing the reinforcing steel.

It was a race against time to get the concrete into place before it started to set.

The concrete is then left to cure. After it has cured enough to have strength to be self-supporting, scaffolding and formwork is removed.

16 trainees are learning with us on the construction of the new office.