UWTSD’s Construction Wales Innovation Centre joins digital launch of The Offsite Ready Project

UWTSD’s Construction Wales Innovation Centre (CWIC) will tomorrow (April 23) form part of a digital launch of The Offsite Ready Project, a major training programme to help grow best practice and skills in off-site construction. 

The launch is part of a nationwide roll out of the programme, which is funded by the Construction Industry Training Board  (CITB) and will offer a range of free-to-access online learning resources and face-to-face training events intended to build capacity in the UK education and skills system, and ensure universities, partner colleges and training providers are well placed to respond to the growth in off-site construction in the UK. 

OffSite Ready will directly engage with employers, training providers, contractors, educational bodies and leading innovation organisations across the construction industry. A comprehensive suite of online flexible training modules will ensure the project outputs are accessible ‘anytime, anywhere’ and will be available to book and download from the Offsite Ready project website.

Up to 600 trainers will be upskilled in the materials across three nations, alongside an outreach programme in secondary schools and with teachers. 

CWIC has been involved in the project’s development and along with its pan-Wales partners (Spokes) will be delivering this exciting and informative programme throughout Wales. 

The project is being led by CSIC and delivered in partnership with CWIC (Construction Wales Innovation Centre), MOBIE (Ministry of Building and Education), Edinburgh Napier University, COGC (City of Glasgow College) and COYO (Class of Your Own).

Topics covered in the programme include; Design Functions, Procurement Functions, Cost Management, Project and Site Management, Onsite Logistics and Assembly, and Follow On and Upstream Trades

A free-to-use online educators’ toolkit provides a range of easily-accessible resources which have been co-designed by industry and academic experts in the field of offsite construction. It provides a recognised CPD opportunity to remotely access the latest resources to best teach the practice of offsite construction

The Offsite Ready Conference online event will feature:

• An introduction to the programme from some of our expert project partners
• A webinar led by our trainers which will walk participants through the toolkit
• Breakout chat rooms to enable further discussion on offsite training

UWTSD’s Lindsay Richards, Project Director –Offsite Ready, Wales said:

“As a regional project director, this has been such an exciting project to be involved .The opportunity of working with an expert UK-wide network of project partners to establish a major training programme to help grow best practice and skills in offsite construction will ensure that Wales is Offsite ready!”

Commenting on the digital launch of The Offsite Ready Project Mark Bodger, CITB Wales Partnerships Director said: “This is a major UK-wide collaboration which CITB is delighted to fund and be part of. Offsite construction creates a range of essential new skills needs and opportunities, including in assembly, digital technologies and installation. The Offsite Ready Project is a big step in the right direction because it’s numerous, modernising benefits – in productivity, health and safety and on environmental themes – are even more apparent in these extraordinary times.”

Please also follow us on Offsite Ready for more information on the programme and other useful offsite construction resources.