Local students enjoy Unloc’s Young Innovator's Challenge with Ballymore
On Tuesday 11 February 2025, we were delighted to welcome students from Kensington Aldridge Academy to Ballymore’s Head Office to take part in Unloc’s Young Innovator's Challenge.
On the day, 25 Year 10 pupils worked with the Ballymore team to learn about the property development industry, community engagement methods and how to improve their pitching and presentation skills. They were also treated to a site tour of The Wardian development at Canary Wharf.
Young Ballymore professionals from across the business also shared useful insights into their career journeys and answered the students’ questions.
The day ended with a fun, creative challenge to design a community engagement strategy for Project Flourish aimed at successfuly engaging young people from the local community and involving them in the development process.
Grace Cockell, Careers Coordinator at Kensington Aldridge Academy, said:
“The students had the brilliant opportunity to visit nearby development The Wardian, including travelling 53 floors up a skyscraper to view Canary Wharf from the observatory area.
“Students were later tasked with focusing on Ballymore's upcoming development in Ladbroke Grove, Project Flourish, and working creatively in groups to consider ways to include the voice of local young people.
“Ideas included arranging workshops and concerts for young people, incorporating local businesses in the local retail space and using social media to promote awareness of the project.”
Unloc, the group responsible for coordinating this unique experience for the students, is a multi-award-winning education non-profit, which helps schools, colleges and organisations empower young people ‘to become changemakers’.
The students enjoyed the day, commenting:
“It was very interactive and helped us build confidence.”
“Fun activities, we were educated on what the company does and had a lot of fun speaking and presenting ideas.”
“This trip was great fun and exciting.”
“The people that work here are nice and they were able to answer all questions asked. It was a new experience and environment.”
“The best thing was creating our own presentation for the local Project Flourish development.”
“Being able to create our own slides and presenting it to the people in the room was exciting.”
“Getting to learn about the different departments and everyone's roles.”
Ballymore and the Project Flourish team are looking forward to working with local schools and organisations like Unloc in the future.
To find out more about Unloc, please visit https://www.unloc.org.uk/.
To find out more about Kensington Aldridge Academy, please visit https://kaa.org.uk/.
Before you go…do you support Project Flourish?
We know there is great support in the local community for what we are trying to achieve with Project Flourish. However, if you support our plans but haven’t already voiced your opinion, it’s really important that you tell the Council know how you feel. Your voice matters and every supporter needs to stand up and be counted. To have your say, you can:
Email your support - planning@rbkc.gov.uk
Send a letter of support - RBKC, Planning Department, The Town Hall, Hornton Street, London, W8 7NX
Use the online planning portal - www.tinyurl.com/support-project-flourish (scroll to the bottom of the page and use the comment box).
We hope you share our view that this development will bring the Kensal Canalside Opportunity Area back to life and deliver a number of significant benefits.
Thanks!