WORKINGTON students have been gaining knowledge and skills as they are tasked with creating redevelopment solutions for their town centre.

Students from St Joseph’s Catholic High School in Workington have spent the last week gathering ideas on how to redevelop the town’s former Opera House site, while fellow pupils have been gaining the valueable skills required to deliver a challenging technical project and develop more sustainable heating systems.

The students are taking part in ProjX and Elements programme, which is organised by the Centre for Leadership Performance for Sellafield Ltd.

ProjX and Elements programmes provide students with opportunities to develop leadership skills including teamwork, problem solving, collaboration, innovation, planning and communication.

They get to experience project management and business processes through real work scenarios.

Twelve ProjX students have been based at Allerdale House working with Allerdale Borough Council as ‘the client’ in their development project for the former Opera House site.

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Ten other students who are taking part in the Elements programme are working from Lakes College with staff from Sellafield Ltd and its supply chain partners.

News and Star: BRAINSTORM: The group gathering ideasBRAINSTORM: The group gathering ideas

The programmes are designed to enable young people to explore a range their interests within the career sector and allows the to work collaboratively with with the experts in that inudstry from across West Cumbria.

Companies working with the students include Responsive, TÜV SÜD, KBR, Jacobs, Armstrong Watson, NNL, and Baines Wilson.

Nicola Woolley, the secondary programme manager at CforLP said: “The students have had a terrific week learning first hand some of the challenges involved in different real-life projects, the skills required to bring a complex project to life, and the behaviours needed to succeed in the workplace.”

The ProjX brief tasked the students with creating a £500,000 project to reuse land which occupied the Opera House building in Workington.

It must be self-sustaining and students must show how their scheme will attract people into the local area, and benefit the community, particularly young people.

The Elements programme challenged the students to help the Sellafield site to move away from central steam heating, and create a sustainable heating system model that other businesses could adopt.

Each team is tasked with making a presentation at the end of their working week, to 'sell' their concept to their clients.

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