The NHSPS Town Planning team, working in collaboration with the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) and their delivery partner Clever Egg, recently hosted two students from Chobham Academy Secondary School in London for a week-long work internship to provide an insight into the town planning profession, and the wider work of NHSPS - as part of the ‘RTPI EXPLORE’ pilot.

RTPI EXPLORE is a work experience pilot that aims to encourage young people, particularly those from Asian, Black, minority ethnic communities and lower socio-economic backgrounds, to become town planners. The government has recognised that an extended period of unemployment, if experienced at an early age, can affect future employment prospects and lead to disadvantages such as ill-health and poverty. This can create a significant cost to both individuals and wider society, both financially and socially.

The NHSPS town planning team has been an official learning partner of the RTPI since 2014 and was selected as one of a small number of pilot providers to run this project.

Throughout the week in June 2022, the students achieved a great deal including:

• Completing an RTPI sponsored project on housing in the Whitechapel area – exploring the site’s opportunities and constraints, planning policy position, and providing their vision for the future of the site as a mixed-use community focused neighbourhood
• Presenting their project to a panel of NHSPS colleagues and answering questions
• Site visit and tour of the new Canary Wharf Crossrail Station and Operating Room
• Site visit of the Whitechapel Road development site
• Spending time with our internal ‘Development’ and ‘Financial Viability’ teams
• Attending two RTPI webinars
• Interviewing multiple senior NHSPS colleagues

Mark Adams, Senior Associate Town Planner, supervised the students throughout the week and said:

“Both were an absolute pleasure to have around. They both showed great initiative, hard work and enthusiasm. They were a big hit with the team and were able to pick up a number of very complex and detailed workstreams with ease. We look forward to running this type of internship more regularly in the future.”

Suzanne Reed, the students’ Head of Year at Chobham Academy, said:

“Both students are back on site today and have said they found the week really interesting and inspiring. Thank you so much for all your hard work with these two students, it is greatly appreciated by both the school and the students. It would be great if you could keep us in mind for any future work experience projects, we also have students keen and willing to participate in programmes such as this.”

A big thank you to all who were involved in getting this pilot set up, making the students feel welcome, and providing an engaging programme of sessions. Those involved include:

• Siannan Fealy (Talent & Acquisition team) for the excellent employability / CV session
• Junior Moka (Development Team) for brilliant insight into the development process
• MTR Crossrail Team for the ‘behind the scenes’ tour of the new Canary Wharf Station
• Lewis Flavell, Rebecca Foster and Theakreh Mosleh (People team) for their ongoing support and guidance

Careers at NHSPS

At NHSPS we want to get, grow and keep great people at every level aligned with our values and create an engaged and enabled, values-driven culture.

We offer a wide range of jobs in our Corporate teams which include Asset Management, Operations, Finance, Technology Services, Customer Services, Marketing and Communications, and People, as well as our regional Facilities Management teams which maintain our 3,000 buildings across England. 

Learn more about career opportunities at NHSPS