npower graduate volunteers alpaca in a whole lot of work at local school

npower volunteers with Cath Smith at Crowdys Hill School

Eighteen volunteers from RWE npower's Swindon office have spent the day working on the farm at Crowdys Hill Special Needs School. The volunteers, who all joined the company's graduate development scheme in 2009, took time out of their working day to provide some much-needed assistance to rejuvenate the farm in Upper Stratton.

Ten of the volunteers spent the day building an enclosure for three new chinchillas that have recently arrived at the farm. The team of graduates included a number of Engineers, whose technical skills came in handy when building and re-wiring an electric fence to keep foxes out of the chicken enclosure. The rest of the group spent the day painting fences around the animal enclosures to brighten up the farm, and met some of the resident animals, including a small herd of alpacas.

Crowdys Hill School is a special school for pupils with complex learning difficulties. The farm is an important part of the school developing the pupils' workplace and team work skills.

Two heads are better than one for npower volunteers Joe Briddon, Tim Howell, Daniel Steinert and Cath Smith

Cath Smith, Head of Rural Studies at the school, said "it's been fantastic to have the npower volunteers here. They've all worked really hard and the results look great."

Pete Crockett, the head teacher of Crowdys Hill stated that "having colleagues from other sectors work alongside our staff is really valuable. We see these colleagues gain real satisfaction from doing something that supports our pupils. We also gain from the expertise and enthusiasm they bring to the task."

Joe Briddon, team leader from npower, said "we've all had a really enjoyable day; it was great to get stuck into the project and meet some of the animals.

Cath explained how important the farm is to the students here - we hope that the improvements we've made today will make a difference to both the animals on the farm and the students that visit it."

npower operates an extensive volunteering programme, run in partnership with CSV (Community Service Volunteers), providing opportunities for employees to develop their skills and make a positive contribution to their community. Hundreds of employees take part in the programme every year. The Swindon volunteers were part of the Graduate Volunteering Day, where graduates across the company volunteered at different sites, including Birmingham and Worcester.

Gradcracker presents 'Engineering Uncovered' at Brunel University

Pictured above from left: Rachel Mutters (Gradcracker), Rob Warham (National Instruments), Beejal Shah (National Instruments), Dave Green (Foster Wheeler), Phil Curtis (Foster Wheeler), Louis Koonjeen (npower), Angela Lockhart (Gradcracker), Mike Grey (Placement Officer, Brunel University), Raj Sidhu (Careers Consultant, Brunel University).

Gradcracker regularly hosts seminars at Universities where we introduce some of our employers to the engineering students.

Two weeks ago we were at Kingston with Alstom, AREVA and Lloyd's Register. This Wednesday, we hosted a seminar for over 120 engineering students at Brunel. Here, we were accompanied by Gradcracker employers, Cummins, Foster Wheeler, National Instruments and npower.

If you're a Gradcracker employer who would like to be involved in future events contact Rachel. If you would like Gradcracker to attend your University contact Angela. (There is no charge to Gradcracker advertisers or Universities.)