Giffen Group and Oaklands College join forces

Giffen Group and Oaklands College, recently announced a collaborative partnership aimed at raising funds for The Cancer Treatment and Research Trust Appeal (CTRT) at Mount Vernon Hospital. Both Oaklands and Giffen Group are based in St. Albans.

Giffen Group, a leading electrical installation, maintenance and railway infrastructure contractor, celebrates its Centenary in 2009 and has chosen to punctuate the year with a series of fund raising initiatives for its adopted charity, CTRT. In this instance, with the help of Oaklands College art students, Giffen Group is commissioning six pieces of original artwork.

After a series of preliminary meetings a design brief has been created for the project, which will now be used by foundation year students as the basis for creative projects.

The brief was compiled by Conical (Giffen Group’s retained marketing agency) and is deliberately constructed to mirror a commercial design brief that students might encounter if they were to pursue a career in design.

The students will have their work displayed at an exhibition in April 2009 when judges drawn from Oaklands, Giffen Group and Conical will decide the six best pieces. The selected artwork will then be auctioned at Giffen Group’s Centenary Party to be held in the summer of 2009, with all proceeds going to the CTRT.

Oaklands Principal Mark Dawe said;

“We are focused on building strong relationships with local businesses. This initiative is an example of how the college and business can work in partnership. The students will benefit from exposure to a real life design brief and we will be raising funds for a local cancer charity.”

Giffen Group Chairman Jo Giffen added;

“We have been based in St. Albans since 1909 and wanted to theme our Centenary with a series of original fund raising initiatives for charity. We have a long association with Oaklands with our apprentice training programme and we as a company firmly believe in developing links with local educational establishments. I am delighted that this initiative will raise funds for a very worthy charity.”

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