A new Fife College course which has been designed following a pilot innovative partnership project in collaboration with Historic & Environment Scotland, Scottish Lime Centre Trust, St Andrews High School and Fife Council has been named as a finalist at the national Building Innovation Awards.
The course, which aims to tackle inclusive, gender and digital progress in the construction sector as well as providing opportunities for students to learn traditional building skills has been shortlisted in the Best Skills and Training Innovation Category at the UK wide industry awards.
Developed over the past year, the partnership project has seen the creation of a new taster course at the College which gives pre-apprentices experience of the latest innovative technologies as well as traditional building skills, two areas where there are significant skills gaps in the construction sector.
The course offers students the opportunity to utilise innovative technologies, such as laser scanning used to conduct building surveys to replace more traditional means.
As well as undertaking traditional building skills, students are also exposed to data capture and handling during field work to enhance digital skills and literacy. This work is then validated through video editing skills for evidencing in e-portfolios, giving pre-apprentices the opportunity to enhance digital and evidence gathering skills prior to undertaking a Vocational Qualification.
The Building Innovation Awards recognise and celebrate the most innovative products, services and technologies reshaping the UK’s construction sector. The shortlist of finalists was compiled by judges from across industry and academia.
Marc Fleming, Academic and Quality Manager for Construction Crafts and Built Environment at Fife College said:
“We are absolutely delighted to be finalists at the Building Innovation Awards – to be recognised amongst some of the biggest names in the industry is a great achievement.”
“The support from our pilot project partners, funded through Erasmus+, was instrumental to the design of this course. These collaborations allowed industry experts to complement and support our expertise in the fields of data capture and laser scanning to create a course which goes a long way to tackling some of the major issues facing the construction sector at present.”
“We aim to make the course offering available to as many schools in the Fife region as we can. Through this pupils will see how attractive, diverse and progressive a career in the construction industry can be, whilst being equipped with the practical and digital skills required to give them the best possible start to a career in the industry.”
The winners of the Building Innovation Awards will be announced next week (23 October) at The Midland Hotel in Manchester.
For more information about a career in the Built Environment visit https://www.fife.ac.uk/courses/subject-areas/built-environment/.
