LOW entry levels, low take-up, poor PR... the construction degree is in crisis. Vague 'initiatives' indicate industry and academia can't agree on a solution, so Rod Sweet and Kristina smith ask: Where now for the BSc?
Back in November a rare meeting took place in Leeds between academia and industry to address the fact that hardly anybody wants to do a building degree. Attended by university lecturers, the Strategic Forum, the CITB and other representative bodies, it was called an action workshop, but in reality was anything but. Disappointed participants said it only widened the already yawning gulf between educators and employers. One described it as a moan-fest, another a blame-fest. Conceived with great expectations, the meeting ended (literally, according to one rumour) in tears.

The first draft of the meeting's report, called Rethinking Construction Education, cried out that construction is threatened with collapse unless something is done urgently to boost applications. Even though a second draft, called Accelerating Change in Built Environment Education, toned "collapse" down to "serious problems", some pointed out that the only thing in danger of collapse was an out-of-touch and out-of-demand university sector.

What's the problem? Only 746 people applied for a full-time construction management degree or HND last year, that's what. Entry standards are low. Women give the subject a wide berth. Construction management courses are closing down around the country. What keeps many afloat are part-time, mature and foreign students, and a small but discernible growth in online distance learning at Masters level.

So what did the report recommend? Apart from urging nobody in particular to achieve global improvements – improve the image of the industry, get the professional institutions to integrate accreditation processes, break down barriers to multi-disciplinary education – the report recommended an M4I-style initiative that establishes projects demonstrating industry-university collaboration. This new initiative would be headed by John Hobson, former head of the government's Construction Directorate, and blessed by the Strategic Forum. However the Strategic Forum is withholding its blessing. Chairman Peter Rogers supported the report in principle, but was seeking advice from the industry about whether to endorse it. A decision is due this month.

"We're nervous about endorsing every initiative because it becomes a rubberstamping process," he said. Rogers was at the Leeds meeting and criticized it for its failure to suggest fast, effective actions.

"Everything will take too long," he said. "Even this M4I thing. It's two years before you start to see any results. We need better timescales, like something tangible in three months, then nine months."

The Construction Industry Council also expressed disappointment with the meeting, although chief executive Graham Watts said it was too much to expect such a diverse group of people to change the world in an afternoon. Yet he defended construction against academia's criticism that the industry is fragmented and gives mixed messages about what it wants.

"It hit me that universities use industry as an excuse but many are unwilling and unable to work together and provide a multidisciplinary approach," he said. "Some courses will die. The teaching is not up to scratch and nobody wants to apply. There is a rationalization going on right now."

Watts pointed out that built environment courses as a whole are doing okay. Architecture is strong as ever and surveying experienced a turnaround after it raised its accreditation standards.

The CIOB gave the report a chilly reception. It turns out that the universities' woes are not necessarily the institute's. It hurts the CIOB if membership growth is threatened, but the quantity of new members entering through degree programmes has always trailed behind the total coming through vocational routes (including the direct membership exam), and last year vocational entries nearly doubled the academic ones.

So it isn't surprising that Chris Blythe, the CIOB's chief executive, challenges any perceived sanctity of the full-time BSc in Construction Management. As he sees it, the CIOB used to run its own exams long before the construction management degree was invented. Why not do it again, and engage further education providers to prepare candidates for the exams?

Blythe says the report ignores the variety of vocational routes to management employers already rely on. Good managers come up from the trades. Others join companies after school and get a degree part time. These routes are attractive because you can earn while you learn.

maybe there should only be an MSc degree?

Sheila Hoile, CITB

"With the debt you carry at the end of three years these days, getting a 2:2 in any degree is pointless from an economic point of view," he said.

Blythe believes a big part of the solution lies outside the industry, with the vast pool of non-cognate graduates. His point is, why recruit from a pool of around 2000 construction graduates, nearly a third of whom, in 2001, were rejects from other degrees, when you could be fishing in a much wider and higher-achieving pool of, say, business studies graduates? In 2001, 23,600 applicants were accepted for business studies. Unlike building, more applied than were accepted.

The CITB is also ready to challenge any perceived dependence on CM graduates. Director of training strategy Sheila Hoile says maybe it's time to ask big questions. "Do we get rid of CM degrees? Maybe there should only be an MSc. Maybe an undergrad degree is a real turn-off to young people."

She says the industry ignores what young, ambitious people want: transferable skills.

"Pitch it to business graduates like this: spend time in our industry and learn some real management skills," says Hoile. "Whether they stay depends on what employers offer them."

Ciob finally acts
The problem has always been converting non-cognates. Contractors have been dabbling in it for years and few are willing to spend the resource training them up to technical competence.

One of the most spectacular examples of an organised assault on the ranks of the non-construction graduate took place in 1988 when Tarmac hired 40 non-cognates as trainee surveyors in one shot, guaranteeing around 16K a year and a route to professional membership. According to one of those, Bruce Dickson, a history graduate who is now commercial manager for HBG in Scotland, about 25 got through the programme. It was ambitious, expensive and risky, and after the 90s recession it was never attempted again.

Tarmac wanted surveyors, though, and everyone says it's harder to convert non-cognates into site managers because site managers need greater technical competence. Major contractors used to convert non-cognates over generations (think of Laing) but that know-how is largely lost, so there is a real demand for a solid definition of what you have to do to convert a historian, mathematician, accountant or biologist into a site manager without turning a silk purse into a sow's ear.

That's why the CIOB drew applause last month by issuing a surprise commitment to define the requirements for converting non-cognates by July. This has been a long time coming and will thrill many who peer through the hoardings at the teeming pool of rudderless non-cognates.

At Bovis, learning and development manager Mirka Staskova longs for a fast-track conversion course. Bovis has hired a few non-cognates but they've got to be pretty passionate because they spend five years getting a construction management degree on day release, after spending three or four years on their first degree. That's nearly as long as it takes to become a doctor. At Southbank University, head of construction and engineering John Knowles welcomed the news because he's considering setting up an MSc course specifically for non-cognates. Clear CIOB guidelines would help him design it and accreditation would make it attractive to potential sponsors and students.

Blythe admits the conversion has to be fast, or at least as fast as routes to other professions like accounting and law – three years part-time after the first degree.

graduates do not display the drive

Chrissie Chadney

Just run the site, please!
Contractors are the direct clients of the universities and they are not satisfied customers. CM surveyed 12 large contractors who between them recruited approximately 93 graduates each year. Among those hiring 10 or more graduates per year, the majority expressed either reservations or strong dissatisfaction about their quality. They complain about graduates who lack basic technical competence.

"I had one 21-year-old in here with great theories telling me he should be running the company," said one regional director of a major contractor. "I just wanted him to run a construction site. We've interviewed 10 and we won't be taking any."

A head of training at the same contractor said graduates have an inflated self-opinion.

"They arrive expecting to deal with the broad issues of project management, only to be disappointed and reluctant when they find they have to start at the bottom managing subcontractors on site."

The general view is that when it comes to the essentials – taking off, reading drawings, spotting poor work and dealing with it, setting up and monitoring programmes – pure graduates just don't cut the mustard compared to those who come up from the trades or get a degree through the day-release route. The exception is graduates from universities with strong links to sponsoring companies, universities like Salford and Loughborough. There, companies have a hand in the curriculum.

Chrissie Chadney, head of personnel training and development at Willmott Dixon, says a rigorous selection process is necessary to ensure her company hires the right people... essays, tests, problem-solving exercises and two sets of interviews.

"Many applicants do not display the drive that we require of construction managers," Chadney says. "Some degrees seem to be too theoretical, which is not useful to us. There is also the general problem of poor English."

CITB is wary
The scene could shift significantly this year if the CITB and the CIC are successful in their joint bid to be construction's sector skills council (SSC). There will be six SSCs in the UK come October, each covering a major sector. If the CITB-CIC partnership gets SSC status, they'll get a seven-figure sum to spend, possibly on promoting construction management as a career option.

But not so fast, says the CITB's Hoile. She's less interested in the money and more in the extra clout SSCs will have with government and funding regimes. This power to change funding rules will challenge the role universities play. Now they get money if they demonstrate success in research, not teaching. Some argue that this focus on research pushes students into theoretical endeavours. Hence the rift between academia and industry. In short, Hoile wants a shift to demand-led education. If teaching got funding priority and industry made it clear what it wanted taught, the rift would disappear.

This signals a possible recovery of further education. Thirty years ago, budding construction managers at Brixton College of Building spent a big chunk of their time learning trades, based on the belief that you can't manage what you don't know. Plenty of recruiters these days would drool over such a technically accomplished candidate.

Contractors have lacked critical mass when voicing their needs. Now she says the SSC will provide that mass. She calls on companies to start gathering data to support their demands for better education performance. The CITB will appoint a higher education manager, which costs money. There is also talk of a full-timer to promote built environment degrees, which will cost money. But Hoile would rather get her hands on the underlying infrastructure, not stick a plaster on a broken leg.

"We need a business case," she says. "I'd be really loathe to sling a million at this without understanding the problem."

Opportunity blocked: career advisers had no idea

The construction industry is crying out for graduates? There are jobs which don’t involve a spanner or a saw? This is all news to school careers advisers. Those we straw-polled have plenty of leaflets, books, even posters from the CITB. But the kids aren’t interested. “They don’t want to be builders. They want to work in sport or IT,” says Amanda Gerard, careers co-ordinator at Acland Burghley School, in Camden, London. “It depends what the latest TV show is. When Ally McBeal came on, all the girls wanted to be lawyers.” No one from the industry had visited any of the schools. Jan Jones, head of careers at Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College in Leeds, only realised there was a people shortage in building when a father happened to mention it at parents’ evening. He has volunteered to come and give a talk. “I would like information to come through from local employers who are interested in sponsoring students through university,” comments Jones. Another teacher wonders why the big contractors don’t send round bulletins like the big management consultancies, listing what opportunities there are for school-leavers or graduates seeking sponsorship. Glynn Bowen, head of careers, says that although architects and occasionally quantity surveying firms offer work experience, contractors don’t. Someone has told him that safety regs make it too difficult. The other side of the story is that it can be difficult to promote construction to schools, because careers time is limited. Dr Steve Pretlove, course director of the construction management degree at South Bank University in London sent out letters to 800 careers advisers, inviting them to an information day. Less than 10 responded. There are success stories. Stephen Barthorpe, scheme leader for the University of Glamorgan’s construction management degree, has set up an ‘adopt a school’ scheme where the regional branches of big construction players get involved with just one school, and managed to entice in 33 local careers advisers for a construction briefing. The Construction Industry Council has recognised the problem and last year, with support from CITB and other organisations produced Building Visions – Creative Careers in the Construction Industry. The package was launched in November: 5,000 videos and teaching notes, one for every secondary school in the country. But more volunteers are needed. If you want to spread the word at schools, contact CIC policy development officer Bridget Fidler (bfidler@cic.org.uk), tel 020 7637 8692.

D is for dummies: Do low entry requirements turn kids off?

At Southampton Institute of Higher Education, course leader Steve Bralee is worried. With only 19 students in its construction degree course, it’s in a vulnerable position. “We are improving but the whole image of the industry has got to improve. We’ve got to make it more sexy.” The irony is that it’s so easy to get in the door at Southampton. All you need is eight A-level points, equivalent to two Ds. It’s even easier at North East Surrey College of Technology. There, two Es will get you a window seat in the ivory tower. While the CIOB has consistently backed an “inclusive” approach that assumes educators can turn poor academic achievers into good construction managers, many now feel that low expectations turn kids off. Young people might think a construction degree is for dummies. There is no evidence linking low entry requirements with low demand. In CM’s university survey Liverpool John Moores enjoys rude good health, seeing 10% growth in applications each year. You only need two Ds to go there. On the other hand the University of Salford, which stipulates high grades, is in trouble. Low achievers
While low entry standards may or may not get bums on seats at universities, employers are frustrated with the calibre of graduates. “There is a sense that the entrance requirements for many courses are being set too low,” said one recruiter at a major contractor. “In general we are seeing lower levels of enthusiasm and commitment from graduates now entering the industry, which is reflected in less interest in getting professional qualifications.” It may gall advocates of the “inclusive” approach that surveying degrees leading to RICS membership saw a rise of 300 more applications last year, reversing a previous decline. This comes at an opportune time, because two years ago the RICS made it harder to get a surveying degree by denying accreditation to universities who didn’t meet tough new standards. The standards included 75% of first year entrants with an average of 17 A level points. Universities had to demonstrate good teaching and research, as well. So far, eight universities have been dropped because of the RICS’ policy. Four decided to withdraw from the partner selection process, two lost their accreditation and decided not to appeal and two that achieved partnership status have since withdrawn. Carolyn Slater, in charge membership development at the RICS, credits in part its controversial move two years ago for the surveying degree’s turnaround. “Although we are now working with fewer universities, we are in partnership with a group of well-regarded and respected providers,” she said. “Their courses are in demand from able school-leavers, and others already working in our industry.”

The next steps: site managers don’t need degrees

Contractors are unanimous on one point: that a steady influx of construction management graduates is crucial to their businesses. But those graduates will need to be better, say two of the most eminent university heads in the country. Universities will have to produce ones that are savvier and sophisticated, who can think more like strategic business leaders than managers of a specific industrial process. In short, their beige collars will need bleaching, and they’ll have to swap their Doc Martens for Guccis. “Construction needs two different types, those who can do the business and those who can move the business on,” says Martin Betts, head of the School of Construction and Property Management at the University of Salford. Betts says that construction is going to need more of the latter as we move into the future. “We’re going to need generic problem solvers rather than technicians. They’ll need more theory and command respect from all construction disciplines. We can top up their technical knowledge requirements as they progress, but the core skill is shifting.” Colin Gray, head of Reading’s Department of Construction Management and Engineering, says tomorrow’s construction managers will have to manage supply chains that are bigger, more complex and more efficient than they are today. “Construction managers in the future will need to construct production organisations focused on increasing productivity. This is necessary to deal with the ageing workforce replaced by economic migrants of reduced skill and education, and the need for affordability of construction versus increased customisation. “Increasingly technically literate managers will have to deal with the new financial, business and construction technologies.” The number of applicants to full-time courses is falling but curiously, contractors are not panicking because the alternate paths to maturity in this industry (trades, part time study) are quite robust and the imminent shake-up of the built environment higher education industry will give these other routes profile and support. Doing the business
The biggest shift around the corner is a long overdue differentiation between site management and project management. Industry will start to doubt that the first role leads naturally to the second and will collaborate with colleges and universities to train each appropriately. The route is already well mapped for site management. Consider the CIOB’s site management diploma programme, currently taught at 70 colleges and companies. As contractors grow more confident that one doesn’t need a degree to manage a site, this route will receive more support and hence more esteem. To prepare people for the role of site manager, the most appropriate route appears to be a bit of classroom and a lot of site experience. Contractors ensure graduates get this experience by sponsoring part-time students and year-long placements. The sheer involvement contractors have in students’ education makes the degree look more like an apprenticeship. Contractors will have the confidence to call a trade a trade. “Structured industrial placements give us the opportunity to address any of their technical shortages,” says Mirka Staskova, Learning and Development Manager at Bovis Lend Lease. “Most of the graduates come from universities where we have a formal sponsorship arrangement and therefore we continuously review the quality and relevance of the courses.” So these are the people who can do the business. What about those tasked with moving the business on? Built environment departments will come under pressure to develop courses that appeal to high-flying school leavers. An early example of this is the University of Salford’s new BSc (Hons) in Corporate Management in Construction and Property. This is a new fast-track management degree designed to launch graduates into the boardroom. Private companies have helped Salford develop the course, including construction manager Mace, client Safeway and contractor Galliford Try. Salford launches the course next month. If school leavers like it, other universities would do well to take heed. Overall, contractors are getting edgy about a construction degree that prepares graduates for neither the site nor the boardroom. As a result, traditional career paths will widen. Chris Jones, head of training at HBG Construction: “There is a perception that the route to the top is via site and project management and a majority of directors in companies like ours come from this background. But a growing number of surveyors are moving into project management and construction graduates don’t have better career prospects than anybody else.”

Source

Construction Manager

Related files/tables