AN INTRODUCTION TO ‘RETROFIT REVOLUTION’
Project | RETROFIT REVOLUTION
CLIENT | LONDON SOUTH BANK COLLEGES (PART OF THE LSBU GROUP)
Project summary | REIMAGINING A BOOTCAMP-STYLE RETROFIT COURSE - A 3-DAY INTRODUCTION TO RETROFIT, WITH AN OPTIONAL 1-DAY TOP UP TO PREPARE FOR CITY & GUILDS LEVEL 2 ‘AWARD IN RETROFIT’
Polln was commissioned by London South Bank Colleges to design a short, intensive introduction to retrofit, offering learners three days of campus-based learning, with an optional fourth day to deepen their knowledge and prepare for the City & Guilds Level 2 Award in Retrofit.
Retrofit is still an emerging sector. The subject can get technical, fast. But on a short course like this, learners can also arrive with vastly different experiences of education, construction, energy and climate change.
So rather than starting with the curriculum, we started with the people navigating it. Our Theory of Change centred around three principles:
Meet learners where they are | recognising different starting points, educational experiences, cultural perspectives, learning styles and needs, including the high levels of neurodiversity in construction.
Create adaptable, engaging learning | equipping teachers with rich, flexible resources that offer learners varied ways to explore, discuss, see and experience new concepts.
Build confidence to find their place in retrofit | We framed the next step around “What’s your superpower?”, helping learners match retrofit opportunities to their own strengths and interests, rather than an abstract list of jobs.
We firmly believe how people learn is as important as what they learn. So throughout, Retrofit Revolution imparts a huge amount of technical content, broken into manageable modules and combined with discussion, visual storytelling, video, live experiments and hands-on experiences. New concepts and technical words are scaffolded with images and animations, to aid learning and retention. Teachers are also equipped with resources and the flexibility to adapt to needs of the learners in front of them.
The result | an engaging, adaptive and deliberately inclusive learning experience designed to build knowledge progressively rather than overwhelm learners with technical information.
Click here for the Introduction to Retrofit Revolution video (under 5 mins)
EVIDENCE & IMPACT | CONFIDENCE INTO ACTION
Post-course evaluation shows strong improvements in learners’ confidence, motivation to take their next step and perceptions of their future job prospects. Learner feedback also shows that, for some, this confidence has translated directly into progression into further construction and green-skills learning.
By connecting those strengths with real roles in the sector, learners can begin to move from “Is retrofit for me?” to “Where could I fit?”
“A gateway into the construction industry from a perspective I hadn’t considered, and a great grounding to move forward from.”
Former Retrofit Revolution learner