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The university will initially focus on developing a new apprenticeship route for its existing Construction Management BSc(Hons) degree, which will be ready for the first apprentices to start in September 2018.

Professor Stephen Denyer, the university’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience, said: “The university’s School of Environment and Technology has a well-established curriculum offer in construction and built environment, and we are delighted to be developing degree apprenticeship routes in response to employer demand from our Industry Advisory Board.”

The bid was supported by two major construction sector groups – Developers East Sussex and the Skills East Sussex construction forum – and quoted figures from the Construction Industry Training Board which indicated that the construction sector will need to employ 230,000 new workers by 2020 to meet the current skills gap caused by an ageing workforce. At the same time, the construction industry faces a battle to attract young people and to diversify its gender mix.

Professor Stephen Denyer

The new funding is part of a total of £4.8 million being awarded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England to universities and colleges across England this autumn to develop new degree apprenticeships for students starting in September 2018.

Designed by employers, Higher Education providers, and professional bodies, degree apprenticeships provide an alternative route to a degree and a career, with the opportunity to earn while learning. Degree apprentices spend part of their time in study and part with their employer.

Further Education college partners Sussex Coast College Hastings, Sussex Downs College and Greater Brighton Metropolitan College will be working with the university to develop a pathway for learners from advanced and higher apprenticeships onto the construction degree apprenticeships.

To get onto the Degree Apprenticeship programme applicants will need to be employed in the construction sector and the university is working with a number of employers keen to sponsor apprentices and help fill the huge skills gaps in the construction industry.

The funding will enable the university to build new part-time apprenticeship pathways through its Construction Site Management Degree programme – making it accessible for the first time from the workplace on a day release model and fundable through the apprenticeship levy.

You can find out more by emailing Viki Faulkner, Head of Apprenticeships, V.J.Faulkner@brighton.ac.uk.