DMs welcome NVQ route to membership

Experienced design managers who have traditionally fallen into a professional no man’s land between the RIBA, CIAT and CIOB have welcomed the CIOB’s move to recognise the Edexcel Level 7 NVQ in Built Environment Management and Consultancy Practice as a direct route to membership.

Recognising the equivalence of the NVQ and the professional standard expected of members – based on a study last year by UK Naric, the national agency providing information on qualifications – means that holders can bypass the professional competence assessment in the CIOB’s Professional Review, instead filling in simple application forms.

Steve Jelley, group design and technical manager for housebuilder and contractor Howarth Homes in Middlesex, is working towards the qualification and promoting awareness of the new route among his colleagues and wider industry network.

“I’m passionate about the design manager role, no institute has engaged us or take us under their wing, but if you calculate that every housebuilder usually has five to ten design managers per region, and main contractors are often employing at least a hundred design managers, there are likely to be thousands of us in the industry.

“The RIBA likes architects to be running the design side, but that doesn’t reflect the reality of the industry. So for many years, we’ve never had a home. Now the CIOB has basically recognised the role of design manager."

Jelley has so far discussed the new route with about 20 colleagues and contacts who he feels would be capable of meeting the NVQ requirements, and is now also hoping to encourage fellow directors to join the CIOB, so that Howarth Group can achieve Chartered Building Company status. “Because we are going to be tendering for a lot of Homes and Communities Agency funded projects, it will give us a unique edge in the bidding process," said Jelley.

He says that design managers are often architectural technologists who drift into design management without any formal qualifications, some start down the RIBA route but then switch over and become a design manager, and others come over from site management.

“I would say there’s a lot of highly experienced design and technical managers out there that haven’t got a formal qualification, but would meet the requirements for the NVQ and CIOB, because it recognises these NVQs," adds Jelley.

“Membership of the RIBA and CIAT hangs on degrees, but usually it’s only people in professional consulting backgrounds that have degrees. But a design manager typically sits at the head of the table. On a 50-storey tower, you would have a design manager monitoring, running and instructing the design team, the architect, the M&E engineer and the structural engineer, so we have to have skills in all three areas and resolve any issues. So it’s a different skill set – MCIAT often isn’t appropriate.”

Saudi-based engineer is first to take advantage

The first individual to achieve MCIOB via the Edexcel Level 7 NVQ in Built Environment Design and Consultancy Practice is Derek Shelley, an experienced design manager currently working in Saudi Arabia as a resident electrical engineer.

Shelley, 58, has worked in construction for around 40 years, but his formal qualifications are an HNC in engineering, and other supplementary qualifications at sub-degree level. But as he says, employers – especially outside the UK – are increasingly asking for degree qualifications.

Shelley says: “I’d looked at doing a Masters degree, an MSc in Design Management, but the number of courses available has decreased, and the cost has gone up. Plus it would take three years part-time or distance learning. At my age, it’s a lot of time and money.

“I found out about the NVQ on the internet in December 2012, and later I found [from NVQ assessment company CAD UK] that I could also get chartered membership of the CIOB as an added bonus. I started the course seriously in April, and had finished by early June.

“Essentially you provide evidence of what you’ve done, offering a description of the way you worked and providing examples – luckily I had kept quite a lot of records from my previous job. It took quite a bit of time, there was sustained effort in the evenings and at weekends. But I’m now applying for Chartered membership.”

“For design managers, I think it’s worth it. People work long hours and a degree might not be worth it for the amount of time they have left in the industry.”