A £370,000 offsite construction “hub” being set up in Scotland to help develop the skills needed to deliver up to half a million homes north of the border by 2035 is one of five projects to benefit form a £600,000 offsite skills fund.
The seven-month pilot project is one of five employer-led trials being co-funded by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) to tackle skills shortages in the offsite sector, which currently accounts for 7% of construction output in the UK and is worth over £1.5bn to the economy.
The off-site hub is being established by Edinburgh Napier University’s Centre for Offsite Construction and Innovative Structures (COCIS), in collaboration with Heriot Watt University’s Immersive and Controlled Environment laboratory, house builder Stewart Milne and local contractor and manufacturer CCG Group.
The project will create practical and interactive learning material to share sector-wide, and act as a centre of expertise across the industry.
The hub’s lead, and head of COCIS Robert Hairstans commented: “It is projected that over half a million extra homes will be needed in Scotland by 2035 and the Scottish Government’s ambition is for these to meet the highest sustainability standards, which represents an opportunity for innovation and investment in the housing sector. To achieve this given the current backdrop of a construction skills shortage will be a huge challenge unless offsite and modern methods of construction are adopted.”
In a second UKCES-funded project, the Steel Construction Institute will help those working with light steel and modular construction technologies to improve their standards by collecting and sharing good practice information on different construction systems, and designing training and guidance on site management. As well as “on the job” training and formalised courses, it will develop online learning solutions, including webinars, and a Virtual Learning Environment.
The SCI is working with manufacturers including Fusion, Kingspan, Metek and Sigmat, and the University of Surrey, while the project steering group also includes Build Off-Site, NHBC, CITB and Premier Guarantee.
The UKCES’ off-site pilots are the first competition in the UK Futures Programme, a government-backed programme to encourage employer-led solutions to address skills issues. Meanwhile, in the other three pilots:
- Laing O’Rourke will analyse the delivery of a live project using offsite manufacturing, monitoring activities and interactions between the full project team and their supply chain, ranging from design, manufacture, logistics and onsite assembly. This will be evaluated to identify skills gaps.and the contractor will develop training solutions to match the future needs of the industry.
- Skanska will create an offsite construction school, developed with employers, trade associations and academics, which will offer online training to address common skills gaps related to offsite, such as project management, design and IT skills.
- Build Off-Site will lead a comparator project designed to improve the way offsite and onsite solutions are compared in terms of whole-life costs and sustainability, in an effort to encourage surveyors, architects and engineers to consider offsite alternatives. The project will expand an existing online comparison tool and provide accessible information about offsite solutions.
