Beginning their adventure on Monday 4th September, our 2021 and 2022 team of apprentices set off for South Wales for a week of team building like no other. The event was led by Mike Hopkins from the Development Company.
They took part in a number of events such as: Coasteering, the floating stick, exceptional vs average apprentice classification task, blindfolded navigation communication task, negotiation workshop and a bomb disposal task. These tasks enabled them to develop their: communication, negotiation, resilience, leadership, management, coercion, professionalism, and self-awareness skills.
Ben Charlesworth described one of the toughest challenges and what he has gained from the experience: “We faced multiple challenges throughout the week but the toughest challenge that we had to face was the bomb task as it was in a very short timescale with lots of steps to complete. The week was enlightening and I got very valuable constructive feedback from Mike, Karina and my fellow apprentices which I can now go onto implement at work to develop myself throughout my time at Stateside.”
Ben Crowther summarised his time: “The DCO Residential Week was such a great opportunity for all of us. We learned things about ourselves and each other that we can take into the workplace and outside of the workplace. We did some difficult but really fun tasks such as ‘Rollercoaster’ where we built a rollercoaster for a golf ball on the beach. We also did coasteering, which was probably my favourite activity, plus many more. Every single one of us took something from the trip that we can use every day in the future.’
Natasha Follows summarised her week: ‘DCO was a really great week for all of us. Our week was spent doing fun activities and learning about our own personal development and team building. Every activity required a team leader who led the task and we then gave open and honest feedback at the end. This was a great opportunity for us all to develop as managers and leaders- as well as improve our communication skills. The skills we learnt will come in use for all of us in the future.’
