Of course, it isn’t just young people. Construction East will provide support to mature students who have the desire to change career and learn again. Is it really practical for a mature student, perhaps a parent with family commitments who would like to become a Chartered Surveyor, to study in Chelmsford once a week? This will certainly put people off, what could be a brilliant career for them.
We need to provide an education pathway for everyone, which provides the most efficient and straightforward route to our industry.
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The Construction East team has consulted extensively to ensure that there is sufficient demand and interest both in the local construction industry and in the education sector to establish a sustainable local programme and education pathway.
Within the local industry, professional needs have been surveyed and reviewed.
The table below demonstrates anticipated needs across multiple professional roles.
Now that we have established that the construction education pathway in Norfolk is inconsistent, insufficient and poorly coordinated, we can consider what happens elsewhere in the UK.
Construction East has undertaken research which shows that 26,970 female students and 38,195 students commenced courses in Architecture, Building and Planning in the academic year 2020/21. This does not include Civil or Services Engineering (as figures are included within Engineering and Technology). The population of Norfolk is 1.35% of the population of the UK and, therefore, our ‘fair share’ of Architecture, Building and Planning students would be 879. It is helpful to compare Norfolk/Norwich to other similar significant cities:
We have not included the data which shows the number of students from Norfolk who are studying full-time construction-related degrees outside of Norfolk.
Now considering the Norfolk degree apprenticeship data: This data demonstrates that 75-degree apprentices started a Level 6 course in September 2021. Of these, the most popular course was Civil Engineering with 36 students, followed by Surveying with 25 students. Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford is the most popular provider for degree apprenticeships.
Across the UK, 2,120-degree apprentices commenced a Level 6 qualification in September 2021. Based on the Norfolk ‘fair share’ of 1.35%, a consistent apprentice number would be 29 making the demand for degree apprenticeships in Norfolk greater than average. Yet, every degree apprentice will study outside of Norfolk as there are no degree apprenticeship providers who offer suitable construction-related, accredited courses in Norfolk.
Consultation has taken place with key education institutions and organisations to discuss and review the proposals as detailed in the table below. The collective desire and commitment to our proposal is consistently high and demonstrates our ability to establish a supported deliverable education pathway.