Training has always been a passion of mine. Ever since I was a young engineering graduate working in nuclear decommissioning, I’ve seen first-hand the impact that training can have on a business: saving time and money; getting teams to work together better.

So it’s exciting to be leading the launch of the CIOB Academy, the Institute’s very own dedicated training partner.

As members know, CIOB has been setting educational standards and working with professional training providers for years. So you might be wondering why we’ve suddenly decided to do our own thing?

It’s all down to us wanting to offer something different, to produce something that will be genuinely meaningful and tailored to the needs of the industry. We’re developing courses that you won’t find elsewhere, and we’re using tutors with deep industry experience –experts who understand what it takes to get the job done.

One of our main aims is to set benchmarks, ensuring that training is carried out to a consistently high quality. We’re partnering with industry to develop course content and using focus groups to monitor whether the information is current, relevant and useful.

Our Academy has a growing portfolio of subjects. As well as covering well defined areas such as BIM, CDM and accident investigation, we can also help to develop those soft but essential skills such as negotiation strategy and managing contracts in the supply chain.

In another exciting development, we’re now offering certifications for the first time through the Academy. These are developed in partnership with our education department to help professionals and specialists demonstrate their knowledge and competence to a required standard. But what makes the certifications so valuable is that they must be renewed on an annual or biannual basis. This will help certificate holders demonstrate to employers and clients that they are keeping up to date with the latest legislation and technology.

Our first certification, Understanding Building Conservation, can be completed at three different levels, depending on experience and is already a hit. We’ve worked hard to ensure that the content is relevant not only to designers and architects, but also to other roles within a project such as maintenance and construction teams.

Ensuring that people come away from our courses with information that is focused and pertinent to their day jobs is a philosophy underpins our entire training strategy. For example, as well as putting on general BIM courses, we provide two separate packages aimed at technicians and managers. We’re also putting on longer programmes to support members on their route to becoming chartered. 

Training is mainly being carried out in CIOB’s state of the art offices in Holborn, central London, but we will also be growing to other locations where there is sufficient demand.

Always mindful of our broad international membership, we will be expanding our online offering over the next few months. Keep an eye out for our soon-to-be-launched MOOC (massive open online course) on ethics. This is free and open to everyone. It’s part of our commitment to raising professionalism of the built environment sector globally.

This Academy is for you. It’s made by industry, for the industry and we need your input. We would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for new and exciting subject areas and look forward to seeing you either in person or on online soon!

You can find the CIOB Academy at https://www.ciobacademy.org