UK’s first dedicated housebuilding degree

Liverpool John Moores University’s Department of Built Environment, in partnership with Redrow and Coleg Cambria, 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.

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.”

Karen Jones, Group HR Director at Redrow and Non-Executive Director 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.”