THE LONG TERM VIEW
BUILT FOR LIFE
Central to the UCEM vision, both now and in the future, is its core purpose; to provide truly accessible, relevant, and cost-effective education, which enhances careers, increases professionalism, and contributes to a sustainable built environment.
Our Vision: To be the centre of excellence for built environment education
As the centre of excellence for built environment education, UCEM will focus on maximising its impact and influence on both education and industry. In practical terms, this means a focus on delivering greater impact through; student outcomes, widening participation, student satisfaction and reach, whilst increasing influence by offering a greater depth and breadth of education, engaging more with education and industry partners and actively collaborating.
UCEM ‘INSPIRE’
A key part of UCEM’s efforts to maximise both our influence and impact is our ‘INSPIRE’ events.
These are themed sessions that convene influential stakeholders to consider the various challenges facing the sector relevant to our community, whether that is the built environment or higher education so that we can together:
Influence for Skills, Productivity, Industry, Research & Education
UCEM’s INSPIRE events are based on the following three principles:
UCEM INSPIRE events can be about a wide range of topics, with each event focusing on a specific issue.
Collaborative futures: competence, capability & capacity
‘Collaborative Futures: Competence, Capability & Capacity’ gathered experts from across the built environment. The focus was on enhancing collaboration to develop a skilled, resilient and adaptable workforce.
This in-person event brought together the Construction Industry Council, Construction Leadership Council, Technical Apprenticeships Consortium, Supply Chain Sustainability School and the Edge.
The Agenda delved into the shifting landscape of construction & the built environment and its effect on future education & training. The event aimed to share innovative strategies and best practices for educating and upskilling our workforce to enable a dynamic construction and built environment workforce.
Speakers highlighted the importance of holistic training, external collaboration, the need for a culture of excellence (not just compliance) in building safety and the impact of AI and the move towards sustainable construction practices.
Attendees also heard from experts on the construction workforce, apprenticeship and sustainability leadership.
Enabling successful built environment apprenticeships
This INSPIRE event convened a select group of over 30 experts in built environment apprenticeships, from industry, government and sector bodies to identify barriers to effective professional and higher technical apprenticeships and propose potential solutions.
We were delighted to be joined by representatives from organisations such as the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the Chartered Institute of Building, the Institute of Civil Engineers, AECOM and Atkins, amongst many others.
To facilitate the collection of detailed feedback from attendees, the event ran in a ‘workshop’ style, featuring smaller group exercises, interspersed with presentations from the Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education and the Valuation Office Agency.
The resulting report: ‘Enabling Successful Built Environment Apprenticeships: A Call to Action’, recommends:
- More responsive Apprenticeship Standards reacting to the needs of the sector
- A simplified apprenticeship funding system
- Designing more holistic apprenticeship success measures.
Leadership for sustainability in the built environment
This INSPIRE event was focused on the need for effective leadership in the quest for a more sustainable built environment.
A half-day ‘Conference’ style event featured a series of expert speeches, presentations and panel discussions from representatives of organisations such as Mace, Jones Lang LaSalle and the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership.
The day saw a discussion of developments in meeting sustainability goals in practice, the sharing of ideas and the highlighting of innovative practices.
This video summarises the day or you can read our series of Articles detailing each of the event’s sessions:
Joined up leadership for an inclusive built environment
The event united experts to underscore the necessity of collaborative efforts in fostering a more inclusive built environment sector.
Supported by the Construction Leadership Council, Construction Inclusion Coalition, the Construction Industry Council and Building People, the event convened leaders, campaigners and educators.
The day comprised a mix of speakers, panellists and a group workshop session with nearly 80 attendees representing organisations such as AtkinsRéalis, Bidwells, Black Females in Architecture, CIAT, CIOB, Greater London Authority Heathrow, Lendlease, MACE, NHBC, Queen Mary University, RICS, Savills, Tuffin Ferraby Taylor, Skanska UK and Women in Property, amongst many others.
A report of the event suggests that the sector should:
- Adopt a Sector-Wide Data Collection & Sharing Framework
- Collectively agree to voluntary reporting of key EDI data, such as pay gaps
- Cooperate to highlight the sector, its diverse trailblazers and societal value holistically
- Work together to make the sector accommodating to new, especially younger and diverse, entrants
- Embed EDI into routine practice
- Collaborate to define EDI standards for their communities
Get involved
If you have any questions about INSPIRE or would like to suggest a topic for, or collaborate with UCEM on, a future INSPIRE event then please get in touch by emailing: inspire@ucem.ac.uk
