Case Study - Zoe Vershoor
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Zoe Vershoor talks about her experiences on the Lovell Inspire Scholarship programme.
For my Work experience I was based at the Clapham one site where Lovell is constructing 64 residential apartments. On site we are working for our Partner Company Morgan Sindall, which in itself is a new experience for myself and all the site team I worked with.My duties were to work for Tim Blythe (Senior QS) and Billy Hernon (QS) and assist them in tasks such as:
- Complete site walk around for upcoming valuations etc
- Site measurements
- Issue drawings to site team & Subcontractors
- Weekly Material return sheets
- Participating in meetings such as client meetings, Subcontractor pre order meetings & progress meetings.
- Subcontractor payments
In doing these tasks I did come up with some challenges. For example completing the material returns sheet weekly became quite unorganized due to many different site managers and the delivery dockets were not always reaching me in the site office. In order to overcome this I had to set up a system and speak to the site managers to ensure that this worked so that I could complete the needed documents to pass onto the accounts department.
I have never worked on a concrete frame building before (Only Timber Frame) so just to see this method of construction be physically built, has made a dramatic improvement to my overall construction knowledge. At University I only get to learn through texts books and as I have no experience prior to this scholarship it has been an immense help in bringing my text book knowledge up to a higher more confident level.
Working along side Morgan Sindall has had a number of benefits for me. Firstly I get to see and experience the construction of a leisure centre, which normally Lovell staff would not gain that experience. Secondly, working so close to our main contractors has undoubtedly not been easy in terms of communications between site management teams. I have seen first hand how communication methods can sometimes be unsuccessful and also how management have overcome this or dealt with a challenging situation. I have experienced how Tim & Billy, and other members of management have attempted to constructively tried to resolve and possible disagreements that may have arose between us and Morgan Sindall. I have found this aspect of management extremely interesting and therefore as a result of my work experience I have chosen for management communication to be the core subject of my dissertation in my final year at University.
My second placement for Lovell has been extremely beneficial in a number of ways. It has increased my skills in communicating with different members of the construction team and allowed me to gain the responsibility to contact and be in negotiations with different subcontractors and other Lovell team members. In Addition, working at Clapham for an increased amount of time has greatly improved my general construction knowledge. For example, I only have the practical knowledge gained from Lovell. This has massively improved my university work as my background knowledge in much more ascertained.
I would like to thank Lovell for such a great Opportunity and I hope to continue my Career with them once I graduate.
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