Industry forum considers impact of IMC on training

ConstructionSkills have announced the establishment of a new professional forum to look at and find solutions to address the impact that Innovative Methods of Construction (IMC) will have on the industry’s skills and training needs.

IMC, also known as Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), is an increasing feature of modern building design. Major elements of projects, such as the 2012 Olympics infrastructure, will depend upon it. IMC is a term that covers a range of technologies and types of prefabrication and/or off-site assembly, incorporating the use of modern commercial methods into the design and build processes to enable site construction periods to be reduced. Where MMC has been perceived as being limited to the housing sector and of excluding innovative processes such as procurement, IMC distinguishes itself from this in its broader application of the innovative methods available to industry.

Currently IMC accounts for approximately 4% of construction turnover. But rapid growth in output - in excess of 12% over the next four years - coupled with the Governments’ increased focus on cost efficiencies and sustainability, mean that change is needed to speed up the construction process.

CITB-ConstructionSkills already supports IMC training needs in a wide range of organisations. Working with manufacturers, it has developed occupational standards for craft activity for a range of Industrial Systems and is in the process of setting up an NVQ Level 2 IMC qualification. The new forum will identify areas for future development as well as ensuring a more structured approach to meeting the training needs for craft, management and supervisory and professional occupations as the volume of work increases.

The Innovative Methods of Construction Skills Forum is supported by a grant from CITB-ConstructionSkills with the Building Research Establishment (BRE) providing co-ordination. The Forum includes representatives from CITB-ConstructionSkills, the Department of Trade and Industry, Loughborough University, BRE, Smartlife, Contractors (including the Wates Group and CMC Ltd), the Construction Industry Council (CIC) and the Construction Industry Research and Information Centre. Further partners will be recruited.

Whilst prefabrication is a component in most construction projects, the housing market leads the field in its use of IMC and will have a major role to play in future developments to meet the high building targets, particularly in social housing. The ability to meet the government’s target for affordable housing will be dependent on the increased use of IMC.

The winning design from the government’s challenge to industry to build a £60k house is currently housed at the National Construction College, the training division of CITB-ConstructionSkills. The model house, along with other innovations in building, such as the panel system based ‘TEK’ house, will be used by the college to showcase modern building techniques to students who will be able to learn about IMC by building the models themselves.

Whilst housing is currently driving the IMC market, the broader market potential is far greater. Currently 50% of all construction activity is refurbishment and maintenance, so the potential to include the ability to remove elements of buildings - pods/facades - in the design phase, would enable construction firms to replace entire sections of a building.

Alistair Collin, CITB-ConstructionSkills spokesperson explained: “Innovative methods have the potential to improve quality, minimise waste, reduce time spent on-site, improve health and safety and address skills shortages. But we must make sure we are ahead of the game in ensuring that the training infrastructure exists, and that it can be flexible enough to respond to this fast-moving sector and developments in manufacturing processes.”

Later in the year the CIC will organise a workshop as part of an International Benchmarking project to review what impact IMC might have on the UK construction industry and its skills and standards of occupational competence.

For further information, please view the full press release