Savills Bristol hosts students on real estate insight day

Savills Bristol teamed up with Pathways to Property – a Henley Business School initiative, and a Reading Real Estate Foundation (RREF), designed to widen access to real estate. The two hosted a group of Year 12 students for an exciting taster day in Bristol.

The students, who had all expressed interest in a real estate career, came from 10 schools across Bristol and it’s surrounding areas, for the opportunity to learn from and engage with Savills experts.

Savills new office on Welsh Back provided the group with a base for the day and the chance to hear from members of its multi-disciplinary team, to learn about the wide variety of roles available in real estate. Recent graduates and apprentices were also on hand to give advice about routes into the sector.

The students were given a tour of The Galleries shopping centre – the largest city centre site with outline planning for redevelopment – and challenged to work in groups to put together their own project proposals for its future.

Supported by volunteer mentors from the Savills team and Pathways to Property, the groups presented their proposals to an expert panel, which included directors in retail and leisure, industrial agency, strategic development planning and urban regeneration, along with a shopping centre manager.

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Sebastian Collins, a surveyor in Savills retail team said: ‘It was brilliant to hear the students’ redevelopment ideas, which were incredibly creative and thoughtful. I was really impressed with their presentations too, and it was clear that they had learnt a lot from our mentors along the way.’

Charlotte Burchell, an associate director in Savills planning team, who sat on the judging panel, said:

‘This is the third year we have supported the Pathways to Property insight day in Bristol and the best participation we have seen so far.

‘Initiatives such as Pathways to Property are so valuable, not only in improving access to our industry and supporting individuals from various backgrounds who might otherwise not have the opportunity – but also to widen the pool of real estate talent, which is undoubtedly of great benefit of the sector.’

Tom Woolmer, programme delivery manager for Pathways to Property, commented: ‘Savills has been a long-time supporter of the Pathways to Property programme, and so it was fantastic to be able to run this Bristol Insight Day out of their lovely new office on Welsh Beck.

‘The students really enjoyed working with a range of Savills staff throughout the day, and we will stay engaged with all participants, providing them with work experience opportunities, student and industry mentoring, and access to bursaries should they go on to study a property related course at university.’