School today feels more like the workplace of tomorrow. The growing trend is to design education facilities that mirror occupational reality, which helps students better prepare for their future careers. Medical education programs are simulating emergency situations, culinary programs are engraining kitchen safety, and even high schools are striving to recreate the corporate workplace environment.

Preparing students for a real-world occupation is one of the most important functions of education, but it can sometimes be difficult in a traditional classroom setting. Creating a space that looks, feels, and operates like a work environment allows students to apply knowledge in a hands-on manner.  At Henderson Engineers, our unique experience in nearly every industry and building system positions us as the best partner to design career readiness spaces. Because we understand what it takes to bring these places to life, we can scale them to meet the needs of today’s educators by mirroring real-life environments.

SIMULATING A HOSPITAL SETTING

Facing a critical shortage of healthcare professionals in their home state, The University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) set out to build a state-of-the-art Health Education Building that would enable the latest hands-on learning trends and attract top healthcare talent and medical students. Henderson’s expertise building healthcare and education facilities made us the perfect partner for the job.

The unique challenge on this project, and others in medical education, is understanding the degree of similarity to which to design the space. For this space, our healthcare building system experts worked with KUMC leadership to determine the perfect balance between cost and quality of the experience. For example, when considering whether the facility should meet NFPA 99 or contain a fully-operational medical gas system, we created a solution that used pressurized air to maintain the authenticity of the simulation without spending budget on actual medical gas.

The Health Education Building is now complete and features large learning studios, active classrooms, and clinical skill training rooms with simulated settings for different types of patient rooms such as ER, labor and delivery, and an operating room. These settings not only utilize actual healthcare building systems, but also incorporate simulation recording and playback so teachers can help students see and learn from their own experiences. In healthcare, the stakes are high. When students graduate, they have to be ready for anything because lives are on the line. Making it possible to train in realistic settings better prepares them for when those situations happen.

RECREATING CULINARY ENVIRONMENTS

Culinary programs, like the one at Raymore-Peculiar High School (Ray-Pec), are also finding value in career readiness spaces. Students train in a fully-equipped kitchen where they get hands-on experience following kitchen safety procedures and operating professional-grade equipment. Many schools, including Ray-Pec, use these culinary programs to supply on-campus eateries and even cater district events. These real-life responsibilities help students understand the physical and financial demands of a career in the culinary arts.

Much like medical education spaces, the building systems that support a fully-equipped kitchen parallel what is used in a restaurant kitchen. Supplying enough power and ventilation to cooking areas is only the beginning. Grills and cooking oils create an increased risk of fire and require specific suppression designs to protect those working in the kitchen. Because these culinary programs emphasize proper safety techniques, it is important for the space to mimic a real kitchen. Using the same tools and equipment they would encounter in a professional kitchen helps culinary students make a seamless transition after graduation.

PREPARING FOR THE WORKPLACE

Up to this point, the programs we’ve described offer an immersive experience. However, many secondary education facilities are also incorporating aspects of the modern workplace throughout their facilities. Some employ open floor plans with space for collaboration to re-create a corporate office. Others have vocational training spaces and technology labs to prepare students for those types of career paths like the Center of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing and Technology at Ozark Technical Community College. Scheduled to open in 2022, Henderson is helping bring this vocational trade school to life. When finished, it will provide students the ability to train in robotics, mechatronics, 3-D printing, precision manufacturing, and more.

Mastering the building systems behind career readiness programs is all about balancing the scale and budget needed to bring simulated environments to life for students. Whether it’s training future nurses, chefs, electricians, or robotics engineers, recreating those real-world environments combines knowledge with hands-on experience. If you’re planning to enhance experiential learning on your campus with an immersive space, we can help regardless of the career setting you want to emulate. Click here to contact our team.