School pupils benefit from skills teaching at Swansea Palace

The visit allowed staff at main contractor R&M Williams to pass on a range of inspirational career tips to the ten GCSE students aged 12 and 13.

They experienced a range of roles important to heritage construction, had a site tour and spoke to specialist subcontractors.

The students – all from Dylan Thomas School – attended with the help of non-profit, educational charity Engineering Education Scheme Wales (EESW).

This inspires and motivate young Welsh people to choose careers involving the use of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

Further Palace visits under the Girls into STEM banner are due to include more Swansea GCSE pupils and a group of Swansea University construction and engineering students.

The project to bring new life to the unique 135-year-old Palace Theatre building is being led by Swansea Council.

Once complete, it will be home to a range of businesses making use of the venue’s new-style working environment.

Council leader Rob Stewart said: “It’s great that our Palace project is inspiring local girls and young women to take up STEM careers.

“I look forward to the years to come when some of them may be running – or working for – businesses that make the Palace their home.

“The project will bring new life to the High Street area, new opportunities for the wider city centre and new wealth for the whole area.

“The council’s Beyond Bricks and Mortar team continue to work with contractors on this project and others to help deliver educational initiatives.”

At the Palace the Dylan Thomas School pupils were hosted by R&M Williams social value manager Freya Church.

She said: “It was a pleasure to meet the students. They learned about the project and met some inspirational women from our own business.

“We look forward to meeting other girls and young women from around Swansea.

“We want to help increase the number of women in different careers so we enjoy showcasing some of the traditional and less well-known roles that can be undertaken in heritage construction.

“We want to help normalise the prospect of women in careers linked to science, technology, engineering and maths.

“We aim to support the communities in which we work – and we do that in a way which local people tell us they need.”

R&M Williams have invited a range of other groups and organisations to the site as they share news and information about the transformation underway.

Visitors have included a group from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

The Palace Theatre was built in 1888 and underwent a series of interior makeovers resulting in a complex rabbit warren with steep, winding staircases and numerous spaces of different shapes and sizes.

The challenges for those rescuing the six-storey building were intensified by the structure’s derelict state after almost two decades of disuse before the council took ownership just before the Covid pandemic.

Its dramatic but sensitive overhaul is expected to lead to its reopening – as a base for new businesses – next year.

Work began on site in 2021. The project is being assisted with funding from the Welsh Government’s Transforming Towns programme.

Swansea Council says it’s Beyond Bricks and Mortar team works to add extra community value to key schemes and projects.

On projects such as the Palace, they work closely with contractors to deliver educational activities, recruitment and training opportunities, to encourage the use of the local supply chain and to create other community initiatives.

(Lead image: R&M Williams)