Engaging with higher education

The construction industry is keen to ensure education and training is as relevant as possible to industry needs and based the latest industry practice, whilst academia need support basing assignments and projects on real projects and current industry experience.

This blog article provides some simple ideas to help:

Contents 1 Host site visits 2 Deliver visiting lectures 3 Embrace the digital world 4 Get involved in developing curriculums 5 Supervise a dissertation 6 Become an external examiner 7 Host an open day 8 Provide work experience/industrial placements 9 Take part in a KTP 10 Be the industrial supervisor for a PhD 11 Offer a prize 12 Find out more 12.1 Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

[edit] Host site visits

Students need to experience real environments and be inspired by the work that takes place on real building sites. Why not arrange a visit to your site by the universities you wish to collaborate with? GoConstruct have some resources to help with the process.

Be aware that universities may wish to bring large groups of students, so have plans in place to host multiple mini-groups around site. Taking tours around site is good experience for recent graduates too.

[edit] Deliver visiting lectures

Sharing your current experiences with the future generation leads to a much more enriching student experience and provides more relevant and accurate skills and knowledge. Get in touch with your chosen academic establishment to find out how you can get involved. These can be one-off or a series, and project case study presentations are often a very welcome way to explain and illustrate how fundamental ideas, standards, or approaches are applied in practice.

[edit] Embrace the digital world

If your diary doesn’t allow you to physically be in the same room as the students or you want to reach a wider audience, digital technologies such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) provide opportunities for you to engage with a wide and dispersed audience.

[edit] Get involved in developing curriculums

Universities are always seeking employer input to the development of curriculums. Consider how your experience could help develop course content and ensure students are receiving relevant and up-to-date education.

A longer term option is becoming involved with programme advisory boards, who meet maybe 1-2 times a year, and have an ongoing input into curriculum developments.

[edit] Supervise a dissertation

Get more hands-on with the students and supervise a dissertation. This is a great way to mentor young people who will enter the industry and help shape their final year dissertations. For example, contact the course leader, and offer some specific titles for students to choose from, then help them access your staff and sites for their data collection.

[edit] Become an external examiner

External examiners can help universities ensure students are judged against appropriate industry standards and open students up to opinions and ideas from industry.

[edit] Host an open day

Open the doors of your organisation to demonstrate the range of roles and career opportunities that are available.

[edit] Provide work experience/industrial placements

Work experience and industrial placements help students get quality experience of working in the industry. They can also identify future employees.

Remember that students are interested in short, summer placements as well as year-long placements. An increasing number of firms offer summer placements to students at the end of their first year of study.

[edit] Take part in a KTP

If you want to access the knowledge and skills within a university, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships provide a mechanism to work with a university on a strategic project.

See http://ktp.innovateuk.org/ for more information.

[edit] Be the industrial supervisor for a PhD

Provide industrial input into PhD research projects to get more involved with what is happening in the University and the latest research.

[edit] Offer a prize

If you want to raise your company’s profile among students, offer an annual prize for first or second year students? It need not cost much, and will help attract students to apply for posts in your business.

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This article was originally published here by BRE Buzz on 26 Jan 2017. It was written by Ali Nicholl.

--BRE Buzz

[edit] Find out more

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• BRE Buzz articles on Designing Buildings Wiki.
• Construction Dissertation Guides.
• Construction knowledge.
• Student resources.
• Urban design education.