What’s it like to work at an Architectural Practice? City College Norwich students pay LSI Architects a visit to find out.

LSI was delighted to welcome a group of Year 1 and Year 2 students from City College Norwich into the Norwich office to learn more about what it’s like to work at an architectural practice. The students were given talks from architects, architectural assistants and architectural technologists, who have each taken different paths to arrive at LSI, to help students when making important decisions about their future careers.

Jordan Armstrong, Architectural Technologist at LSI, spoke to the students about his experience of studying whilst working at the Practice having been a City College Norwich student himself “It’s a great chance for young people to gain an insight into how an architectural practice is run and what it is like to work for one. It’s also nice to see young people paying an interest and constantly asking engaging questions. I know for a fact how valuable for the students these opportunities are as LSI provided me exactly the same opportunity only a few years ago.”

Chris Lappin took a slightly different route, studying full time at the University of Lincoln to gain his Masters before joining LSI as an Architectural Assistant this summer “It was great to be able to pass on my experience of the route I have undertaken to become qualified. Although I’m not a qualified architect just yet, it was good to impart knowledge to the students as an example of someone who is still training.”

James Johnston, course leader at City College, said “The links with LSI have been invaluable to students at CCN looking for careers in Architecture and Architectural Technology. Visiting the practice has given students an opportunity to get a real feel of what being an Architect is all about. When visiting the practice in Norwich students have been shown both a wide range of construction projects at different stages of design together with discussing diverse projects and career progressions. LSI have always been excellent in choosing employees to engage with students who have different backgrounds and are able to communicate their enthusiasm and professional approach to their work.”

Here’s what some of the students had to say about their visit to LSI;

“I learnt the working dynamics of a company full of creative people and how the work was disseminated and controlled.”Curtis

“It gave me an insight into a real architecture studio” Barhav

“I found the visit to LSI very beneficial, I got a clear image of how architects work and how their careers develop.” Filip

“It helped me decide on my future.” Ian

“It gave me the opportunity to see and understand what the real work consists of. By meeting the technologists who had done the Btec course then went onto become fully qualified gave me an awareness of which route I need to take and how hard I need to work in order to achieve my career goals and ambition. I was also able to meet different professionals and see how their work differed in the construction project.” Frank