Latest News Mon, Oct 21, 2019 7:55 AM
Britain’s construction bosses and their suppliers are the target of a new programme that will bring their businesses up to speed on applying digital technology, so improving productivity and profitability.
The new CITB-funded scheme, ‘Giving leaders the skills to drive digital transformation’, aims to train up to 2,000 construction industry leaders – at least half of them from SMEs - from across England, Scotland and Wales in bringing the latest technology to the sector.
Six projects will train construction leaders in the skills needed to embed digital practices throughout their businesses, by creating internal digital champions and engaging supply chains.
The training will encourage firms to develop diagnostic tools to identify and assess their existing digital skills. The courses will offer teaching materials, modules and mentoring schemes.
The six project leads are: the National Federation of Builders, Willmott Dixon, Setting Out For Construction, Supply Chain School, Leeds Beckett University and the Gloucestershire Construction Training Group.
Over the next three years the Supply Chain School – together with the Tideway alliance and its main contractors, Costain and Skanska – will harness the lessons learnt from London’s £3.8bn super sewer to upskill leaders and managers. The outcome will be their ability to develop a digital approach to their activities. Half will be SMEs from across the infrastructure sector.
Jeremy Galpin, Digital Champion and Legacy Lead for Tideway East, said: “The Downloading of a Digital Mindset programme is an exciting opportunity for us to drive increasing digital maturity across the
project as well as share our learning, learn from others and deliver a digital legacy for the industry.”
Willmott Dixon will be using blockchain in its project with a decentralised database called distributed ledger technology (DLT). This results in cost savings by cutting fraud and error.
Gloucestershire Training Group will help SME leaders identify digital solutions to reduce waste and improve efficiency.
Digital technologies can help save time and improve productivity by enabling onsite employees to go digital, saving hundreds of hours in manual data entry with documents such as timesheets, expenses claims and work records.
Marcus Bennett, CITB Future Skills and Innovation Lead, said: “CITB is supporting the construction industry in understanding the potential savings and productivity benefits of digitalisation, as well as embedding digital practice across businesses, especially for smaller firms. Margins are strained and wage costs going up, so it’s vital to make use of technologies that relieve these pressures.
“The CITB research report, ‘Unlocking construction’s digital future: A skills plan for Industry’, has found that technology-specific skills aren’t the problem – the broader skills and competencies at various levels need to be addressed.”
Other research (External link - Opens in a new tab or window) consistently shows that leadership buy-in is essential to ensure that construction shares in the transformative productivity benefits of digital technologies, adopted by other industries years ago.
Featured News
Hardwood flooring specialist Ted Todd has launched two new flooring collections,...
A wide range of businesses have secured a place on a major eight-figure framework...
BUILDING PRODUCT LIBRARY - LATEST BROCHURES
FRAMESAFE FR A2 FIRE...
By Glidevale Protect
A Guide to Aluminium...
By F.H. Brundle
Handrailing & Balust...
By F.H. Brundle
RLG600 Access Floori...
By Kingspan Data & Floo...
RHG600 Simploc
By Kingspan Data & Floo...
BUILDING PRODUCT DIRECTORY - LATEST PRODUCTS
Straightcurve® – headquartered in Australia, is renowned for high-end innovative garden edging,...
The Kingspan RLG600 raised access floor panel is intended for light office use and is capable of...
Kingspan RHG600 Simploc is the heavy grade floor system, capable of handling up to a 12kN/m2...
CONSTRUCTION VIDEOS - LATEST VIDEOS
Straightcurve® Product Range Overview - A Demonstration of Installation Ease
In progressive and dynamic business sectors, such as construction, it’s natural to be forward...
Decorative aluminium horizontal bulkheads more than 100 metres long have been supplied and installed...