Alison Watson

CEO, Class Of Your Own

Alison Watson left a successful career as a land surveyor to found Class Of Your Own, a social enterprise created to demonstrate the wealth of technical and professional opportunities in the Construction industry. She created the innovative “Design Engineer Construct!” (DEC) accredited learning programme for secondary school students. This has been supported by blue chip companies, professional bodies and universities through the ground breaking ‘Adopt A School’ scheme. DEC is being increasingly adopted in schools throughout the UK, and has resulted in a new generation of digitally savvy young people entering the sector to pursue a wide range of exciting professional careers.

Alison was presented with The Survey Association’s President’s Award in 2013 and the Richard Carter Prize by the Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors in 2014, both in recognition of her commitment to raising awareness of the Geospatial Surveying sector in schools. Alison has presented the DEC programme at the House of Lords, and at many prestigious industry and events over the years.

2018 brings new challenges as the programme is introduced to international schools, primary and adult education and to the armed forces and prison sector. This is complemented by the development of ‘ReconstructED’ – a virtual reality platform that enables DEC learners everywhere to visit and interact with construction sites from the comfort of their classroom.

In recognition of her perseverance and dedication, Alison was awarded an MBE in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to education.

Events Alison Watson has attended as a speaker: