Construction diploma snubbed by students

Students are snubbing the government’s new Construction Diploma, with only one-in-four places taken-up at some colleges.
Fears are now growing that courses will have to be ditched ahead of the planned launch in September.

The Construction and the Built Environment Diploma (C&BE) offers qualifications to youngsters which are equivalent to A-Levels.

Around 4,000 students were expected to sign up in the first year. But the take-up rate is currently running at only 25% of that in some parts of the country.

Forty-four training consortia have been set up to deliver the courses. They have joined forces with 70 construction companies offering students up to 10 days of site work experience as part of their diplomas. Major contractors supporting the scheme include Bovis, Laing O’Rourke, Lovell, Wates, Rok, Balfour Beatty, Kier, Persimmon Homes and Carillion.

But Joe Johnson, training director at the Civil Engineering Contractors’ Association, said: “After pushing this course very hard, only 25% of the places have been filled at one college and I know of at least another four to five consortia reporting the same problem.

“A course with 50 rather than 200 kids will be easier to manage, but if the figures are too low, that will hit the per capita funding, which could force some colleges to close their course.”

The Department for Children, Schools and Families is refusing to release take-up figures for the diploma. Johnson said the secrecy is hampering contractors’ preparations for on-site work placements.

A government spokeswoman said it was “too early” to talk about numbers.

Nick Gooderson, ConstructionSkills standards and qualifications head said: “Yes, figures are down for some training consortia, but not necessarily for the C&BE Diploma, which is only one of five diploma courses the consortia are recruiting for.”