Caunton Engineering were pleased to welcome ten young graduate engineers from one of the country's major consulting engineering practices, WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff, to the company's facilities recently. WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff were design engineers on The Shard so are clearly steelwork framing specialists. This team of engineers were studying off site manufacture for the construction industry, and were visiting both Caunton, and a major precast concrete manufacturer also in the East Midlands. Caunton were able to show the visitors the whole fabrication process, and also shared a meeting where the agenda was how the consulting engineer and the steelwork contractor can help each other to improve efficiency. The visit concluded with a training session in Caunton's accredited Academy where the visitors were taught the particular skills and intricacies of welding, supported by coaching from Caunton's own apprentices. To experience directly the problems associated with welding was felt a benefit when designing steelwork. With the arrival of BIM Level 2, the opportunity for designer and manufacturer to work more closely and efficiently is evident.