Redrow, the leading
housebuilder, in partnership with Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) and
Coleg Cambria, one of the UK’s largest colleges have established the UK’s first
dedicated Housebuilding Degree. LJMU have also validated the qualification.
The first students
to embark on the degree programme will be Redrow team members and they will
start their course in 2018. Over the coming years Redrow hope to open the
degree out to other housebuilders.
The three-year
degree gives candidates a full overview of housebuilding skills; these include
housebuilding quality, project management, health and safety, business skills,
negotiation, right through to relevant aspects of law, mathematics and
economics. Six modules will be completed each year by students.
Candidates will be
assessed in a variety of ways including examinations, coursework and a final
year dissertation project. In each year there are six block weeks of classroom
learning which will be taught in partnership between LJMU’s Department of the Built
Environment, Coleg Cambria and Redrow business experts with the rest of the
contact time satisfied through virtual learning, practical site visits and
tutorials. This means that students will be able to continue to combine working
with Redrow with their studies.
Any Redrow team
member with a level three qualification or a minimum of five years in industry
can be nominated for the programme and Redrow expects up to 15 people to
participate in each year. The first two years will form a foundation
degree with the final year topping up to become a full degree in Construction
Management – Housebuilding. Redrow has already seen success in 2017 through its
training programme, announcing a record 353 trainees in its workforce earlier
this year, a 19% increase on 2016.
Karen
Jones, Group HR Director at Redrow and Trustee at the Construction Industry
Training Board, comments: “The housebuilding sector has
a real opportunity to innovate the way we develop and deliver skills training
to ensure colleagues can fulfil their potential and progress in their careers.
Part of that means working in partnership with further education and higher
education providers to develop new pathways that enable recruits to develop the
aptitude, attitude and strategic nous to deliver communities at scale. This is
why we are working with Coleg Cambria and Liverpool John Moores University to
deliver the UK’s first dedicated Housebuilding Degree. Participants on the
course will be able to learn while they earn and develop the skills necessary
to rise through the ranks in the housebuilding sector.”
“We feel it is
important to share best practice with other housebuilders and we hope that in
the future that the degree programme can be opened up to construction industry
workers from across the industry. We believe this new programme will encourage
people to enter the sector, as well as imparting crucial skills on those
already in the workforce.”
Nick
Tyson, Assistant Principal at Coleg Cambria, said: “We are delighted to be
working in partnership with Redrow and Liverpool John Moores University on this
innovative and exciting new qualification.
“As
one of the largest providers of education and training in Wales and the North
West we are proud to work with a sector leading company like Redrow to provide
opportunities for their staff to develop skills and expertise in the
housebuilding industry.
“At
Cambria we are fully committed to work with employers to serve all the learners
and communities in our region, and challenging them to develop the expertise
they need to build successful futures.”
Professor Alison
Cotgrave, Associate Dean at the LJMU Faculty of Engineering and Technology,
said: “The development of the BSc (Hons) Construction Management in
Housebuilding in conjunction with Coleg Cambria and Redrow, is an example of
how the Department of Built Environment at LJMU is proactively seeking to
address the education and training requirements of employers with bespoke
needs. Our home undergraduate portfolio, whilst diverse, cannot fulfil the
needs of all parts of the industry, and as such this type of development helps
us achieve one of the Department’s long term aims, which is to provide diverse
education and training at all levels, to fulfil industry requirements moving
forward. The development of innovative programmes with high calibre partners
will help us achieve that aim.”
