A group of major contractors led by Balfour Beatty is working with five chartered institutes including the CIOB to draw up the details of a forthcoming “professional apprenticeship” for construction managers.
The apprenticeship is to be an earn-and-learn option that takes young people from the completion of their A-Levels to membership of either the CIOB, the RICS, the ICE, CIBSE or CIAT in five to six years.
The scheme is one of three “trailblazer” apprenticeships that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is using to shift the industry from the present apprenticeship framework to employer-defined qualifications.
In the second round of Trailblazers, two construction apprenticeships were approved by the government, one for wood occupations and the other for construction assembly technicians, but a third proposal for a construction management higher apprenticeship was omitted – see our story here.
However, it is understood that the new qualification is now following the same timetable and enjoying the same BIS support as the other two schemes.
All apprenticeships are expected to move onto the new standards by 2017/18, as recommended by the Richard Review of vocational training in England and Wales.
Under the reformed system, employers will receive the apprenticeship funds that the government currently gives to training providers. The employers will use the money to commission training courses that meet their specifications.
Contractors Kier, Carillion, Willmott Dixon, Wates, Lovells and Laing O’Rourke are all backing the “professional apprenticeship” initiative.
Tony Ellender, Balfour Beatty’s emerging talent development manager, told CM that he hopes to recruit at least 30 school-leavers to the programme next year. He said: “We want to be up and running for the 2015/16 academic year. It will be delivered by a consortium of universities, but first the employers have to develop the standard, then speak to the heads of built environment at the colleges. I don’t know how many universities would be involved, but we’d want to have UK coverage.”
He added that Balfour Beatty saw the scheme as a future alternative to qualifying employees via part-time degrees. In recent years, these have fallen out of favour with construction employers, who sometimes find fees of £4,000 a year for five years poor value. However, he said that Balfour Beatty would continue to recruit graduates from full-time degree courses.
Ros Thorpe, the CIOB’s head of education, said the apprenticeship standard was based on the CIOB’s learning framework, but would also offer alternative “pathways” to membership of the other institutes.
Although she said universities were likely to welcome the study route, she added that non-degree forms of qualification would be possible, for instance NVQs or BTECs. “People could use different qualifications in the future, as long as it prepares candidates for the professional review.”
