Red brick university: First-ever housebuilding degree launched

The first-ever housebuilding degree is aiming to encourage builders to swap hard hats for mortar boards to give them the tools to solve Britain’s housing crisis.

Redrow Homes has teamed up with Liverpool John Moores University and Coleg Cambria in north Wales to establish the qualification, which will be open to team members at the house builder from later on this year. It is expecting up to 15 people will participate before Redrow opens the degree up to other housebuilders later on.

Students will construct a full portfolio of housebuilding skills over the three-year course, including: project management, health and safety and business skills.

The first two years of study will form a foundation qualification before building up to a full degree in Construction Management – Housebuilding that could help cement the government’s pledge to construct 300,000 new homes every year until the mid-2020s.

Karen Jones, group HR director at Redrow and trustee at the Construction Industry Training Board, said: “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.

Today we announce the launch of the first ever #Housebuilding#degree in partnership with @LJMU and @colegcambria. Read about it in today’s @Telegraph@izzyfraserhttps://t.co/5jkWtoXdGE

— Redrow plc (@Redrowplc) January 18, 2018

“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.”