A new ICT-based course that aims to open children’s eyes to the range to professions in the built environment will be taught in secondary schools this September.
Students opting to study “Design… Engineer… Construct!” will be able to gain a GCSE equivalent qualification. The new qualification is expected to receive backing from major construction companies, which will offer teachers CPD training opportunities to help them deliver some of the modules, which include BIM and sustainability. Autodesk is already on board as a supporter.
Ten secondary schools have signed up to the new curriculum after a series of pilots. The course has been devised by the organisation A Class of Your Own run by former land surveyor Alison Watson.
Watson says that unlike the earlier GCSE in construction, now abandoned, the new course is designed to be taught by school teachers rather than in colleges.
Watson added: “Construction is still seen as an issue of jobs for the boys. With this course we almost want to give it a rebrand and make kids realise it’s not about digging a hole or building a wall.”
The course focuses on the professional end of the built environment career spectrum, with a curriculum focusing on real world problems. It covers subjects ranging from energy efficiency to sustainable procurement, setting out and facilities management.
The students are introduced to the principles of BIM and taught how to use design software.
Watson said the plan was to help train design and technology and IT teachers to deliver the new qualification through a series of courses backed by industry.
“Some of the schools putting the course on the curriculum were our original pilots where we worked with children and staff over the last three years to ‘test’ our content,” she said.
Accrington Academy and Archbishop Sentamu in Hull are among the schools running the course this year.
