Posted on 8 July 2025
A team of Leeds College of Building (LCB) staff have represented our great college at ‘The Big Construction Diversity Challenge’.
The annual event, held at Newark Showground, aims to promote and embrace the importance of EDI (equality, diversity, and inclusion) across the construction industry.
Our team competed under the name ‘The Foundation of Diversity’ and was made up of staff from several different departments including the ‘LCBU University Centre’ and ‘Partnerships & Skills’.
The events tackled by our team included a diversity catwalk, human table football, ‘Hungry Hippos’, a construction themed quiz, and a diversity dance off.
20 teams participated in total, all coming from prominent industry names such as Axis CLC, Worcester Bosch and Cortexa.
Our name ‘The Foundation of Diversity’ came from the fact that LCB is the start point for students going into the construction industry and was made up of seven members, slightly less than the other teams who all had ten.
Despite sitting top of the leaderboard at the lunchtime break, the second half timetable proved too much for our plucky team who eventually achieved a respectable midtable finish.
The day was won by the team put forward by our long-time industry partners at BAM Nuttall, a company for which we train more than 50 apprentices a year on their behalf.
Head of Partnerships & Skills at LCB, Rob Smith said that being part of ‘The Big Construction Diversity Challenge’ confirmed his belief that “the only way to tackle the shortfall in construction is to make construction and the built environment for everyone. Our LCB values align perfectly with events like these.”
Organisers of the event, Nimble Media, say that a diverse and inclusive workplace culture is beneficial as it promotes innovation, improves physical and mental well-being, leads to better decision making, improves team morale, builds trust between staff, and reduces workplace discrimination and prejudice.
Reflecting on his day out, Rob said that it was an “amazing” team building experience.
“It was great to go with colleagues who I don’t normally work with and forge a tight bond with by the end of the day. Huge respect to my fellow team-mates who dug in, strained and fought to make our short-handed team actually count!”
LCB maintains its commitment to promoting and embracing EDI within our college. If you’d like to join our team, please see our jobs page for current vacancies.
To find out more about The Big Construction Diversity Challenge go to their website.
