What is Offsite Ready?

Construction Scotland Innovation Centre (CSIC), together with an expert UK-wide network of project partners, is launching a major training programme to help grow best practice and skills in offsite construction. The Offsite Ready project is a series of collaborative events and online modules.

The project, which is funded by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), will offer a range of free-to-access online learning resources and face-to-face training events intended to build capacity in the UK education and skills system, and ensure colleges, universities and training providers are well placed to respond to the growth in offsite construction in the UK.

Offsite Ready will directly engage with employers, training providers, contractors, educational bodies and leading innovation organisations across the construction industry. A comprehensive suite of online flexible training modules will ensure the project outputs are accessible ‘anytime, anywhere’ and will be available to book and download from the Offsite Ready project website from April 2020.

Throughout the train-the-trainer programme as many as 500 training professionals will have received the accredited training across the UK.

The project is being led by CSIC and delivered in partnership with MOBIE (Ministry of Building and Education), CWIC (Construction Wales Innovation Centre), Edinburgh Napier University, COGC (City of Glasgow College) and COYO (Class of Your Own).

Topics covered in the programme include; Design Functions, Procurement Functions, Cost Management, Project and Site Management, Onsite Logistics and Assembly, and Follow On and Upstream Trades.

Who Will Benefit?

Industry

Codelivered
Improving Productivity
Achieving Growth

Workforce

Skilled
Unskilled
Reskilled

Education

Building Capacity
Transforming Curriculum
Codesigned

“The construction industry is facing a period of significant change. At CSIC, we want everyone involved in the construction industry to look to the future and do things better – and that includes tackling our housing shortage through modern, more efficient building techniques, like offsite construction. Key to this is improving the quality and consistency of training in offsite construction.

“The Offsite Ready project was developed in response to research which has shown that offsite construction can increase productivity and reduce costs and timescales compared with traditional methods, with nearly half of construction industry employers expecting to use offsite techniques within the next five years.”

- Stephen Good, chief executive of CSIC

“This is a crucial time for the growth of offsite construction in Scotland. The advent of Brexit means that government, industry and training providers must work together to lessen its impact on the loss of skills. This includes growing investment in the domestic workforce to drive productivity, attract talent and improve home-grown skills.

“The Offsite Ready training modules are a fantastic example of much-needed training in modern construction methods in Scotland to help our industry thrive into the future.”

- Ian Hughes, Strategic Partnerships Director of CITB Scotland

Project Team

Dr Mila Duncheva

"I am passionate about productive design, manufacturing, assembly and construction of buildings using offsite construction systems. I believe that productivity in our built environment is not only about the ratio of economic outputs to inputs expressed by GDP data, but that is it based on people with the right creative mindset, technical knowledge and collaborative working capabilities. These are exactly the kinds of skills that I bring to the Offsite Ready project in leading the flexible learning content creation."

Mila fast-tracked RIBA Architecture Part 1 with outside-the-box design and construction solutions, landing a first-class BA with Honours with RIBA certified work experience in 3 years instead of 5. She declined an unconditional offer from the University of Cambridge for a Masters, to jump straight into a technical PhD at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. During this she analysed the performance of 15 panelised and volumetric manufacturers across 7 countries, and afterwards worked on construction sites for 3 years on 4 innovative offsite construction projects.

Mila now applies her skills in the award-winning Built Environment Exchange (beX) programme to help drive innovation in the construction industry. She analyses the capacity and productivity of the offsite manufacturing sector in Scotland; and also helps architectural entrepreneurs transition their products towards a Circular Economy.

Caitriona Jordan

Caitriona is a Chartered Architect, holding a Masters’ Degree in Architecture from Robert Gordon University. Having worked in practice for several years, in 2011, she began work as a Lecturer in Architectural Technology and Computer Aided Architectural Design and Technology at the City of Glasgow College. She has experience working on projects within both the public and private sectors, including listed building refurbishments, commercial office design, school projects and domestic dwellings.

Caitriona’s job is not limited to delivering the curriculum area. In addition to lecturing, Caitriona works on a range of funded projects for both City of Glasgow College and Construction Scotland Innovation Centre. Where she is involved in a variety of projects with external partners, such as Offsite Ready, Inclusive Value, and EMIC-GEM (Embracing Modular Innovation in Construction – Getting Education Modernised). Within these projects, Caitriona plays an instrumental role, as a project partner in developing teaching content and engaging with industry. Her role within Offsite Ready has been carrying out a qualification mapping exercise across the UK, identifying links and missing links to offsite construction. Further to this, other main roles are to create a train the trainer programme aimed at further and higher education teaching staff, which is being created as video content.

Partners

The project is being led by CSIC (Construction Scotland Innovation Centre) and delivered in partnership with MOBIE (Ministry of Building and Education), CWIC (Construction Wales Innovation Centre), Edinburgh Napier University, COGC (City of Glasgow College) and COYO (Class of Your Own).

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