CIOB Commission Welcomes Graduate Recruit Upturn

Applications to join building courses up to mid-January had risen by 16 per cent. Civil engineering courses are up by 25 per cent and architecture by 15 per cent.

CIOB's Presidential Commission on construction education is undertaking research into how the universities and industry can implement a better correlation between construction courses and the industry's needs.

This coincides with the recent report from the UK Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS) that applications to join building courses up to mid-January had risen by 16 per cent.

Civil engineering courses are up by 25 per cent and architecture by 15 per cent.

These compare with the overall rise of 3.4 per cent in all applications.

The research will focus on key questions such as the impact of top up fees on applications to join building courses, the need for educational establishments to become active recruiters, and innovation in the development and delivery of construction courses to meet the needs of a more demanding student population and their employers.

Professor Ron McCaffer of Loughborough University commented: "The national data shows an uplift in applications for places on construction degrees and this has been reflected at Loughborough.

There are a number of factors driving this renewed interest in construction, for example, after some years of a national decline in construction graduates, the industry is now doing well and construction graduates are in short supply with salaries rising.

"Also, the industry is more aware than ever before that to attract good quality graduates it isn't sufficient just to offer a salary, a whole career has to be available.

Add to that the future prospect of students paying fees, a subject being widely discussed in schools and by careers masters, and the connection between choosing a degree with good remuneration prospects and one that hasn't is more sharply focused in the applicant's mind than it has ever been.

"All this combines to generate more buoyant applications for construction degrees where the job prospects are good, the remuneration is significantly better than many of the allegedly 'popular degrees' which have been described as leading to designer unemployment, and a career itself that is really quite exciting." The Presidential Commission's findings will be published on the CIOB website this year.

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