Construction BUSINESS

BAM Ireland, one of the country’s largest construction companies, is making a positive impact on local communities through its “Enhancing lives” programme. The programme, which is part of BAM’s strategy for 2016 to 2020, aims to add real value to communities through partnership.

BAM is active across the entire spectrum of construction activity in Ireland, including building, civil engineering, design and build, property, rail, BIM, facilities management and M&E. Minimising harm to the environment and making a positive impact in the communities where they operate are core principles of BAM’s corporate strategy.

The “Enhancing lives” programme has been developed to deliver real change in the local community and is about adding value through activities that would not happen without BAMs support. The company says it is also about empowering people through grass roots organisations, as well as those with a wide reach. The programme largely focuses around employment, training, education, community and charity engagement.

As part of this programme, BAM Ireland has taken part in a knowledge sharing and research collaboration with GMIT over the past three years. The two partners recently collaborated for the STEM ‘Seeing is believing’ event, which was held on the BAM AAMHU site in Galway.

Attendees included many secondary school construction studies teachers from the Galway and Clare areas, who welcomed the opportunity to engage with the practical applications of construction.

Following on from this event, BAM and GMIT held a workshop for third year construction management students who were undertaking their industrial work placements.

“The ‘Enhancing Lives’ initiative has provided deep learning opportunities for students to reflect on the need to use their academic education to inform practical solutions to the numerous project-related issues. This direct engagement with industry provides a unique opportunity for students to gain an insight into the complexities of the design and construction process and highlights the key role that each project stakeholder has in delivering projects on time, within budget and to a superior quality,” said Dr Mark Kelly, Department of Building and Civil Engineering, GMIT.

Activities for the BAM ‘Enhancing Lives’ target focus largely around employment, training, education, community and charity engagement, with the goal of enhancing one million lives in local communities by 2020 across the BAM group.

“Collaboration between industry and education is essential for securing a future skilled talent pool for the Irish construction industry and we are leading the way in this regard,” BAM Ireland Chief Executive Theo Cullinane said. “BAM Ireland’s ‘Enhancing lives’ target, aims to make a positive impact on local communities. The target is about making a real and positive difference to the lives of people we come into contact with through our work. This is about adding real value through activities that would not happen without BAMs support or intervention and also supporting people through grass roots organisations as well as those with a wide reach.”

“Through our work in Enhancing Lives we will play our part in addressing social issues on a local and global basis,” Theo Cullinane added.