The Construction Industry Council (CIC) has led work to update the Built Environment Functional Map on behalf of the Built Environment Skills Alliance (comprising all the Sector Skills Councils (SSCs/SSBs) operating across the sector).
David Cracknell, Director of Skills & Lifelong Learning at CIC reports:
The Map provides a structured progressive family tree view of all the functions and skills needed in the whole sector for it to operate effectively within the overall economy.
These functions have been identified by SSCs/SSBs for their own sector by working with employers and practitioners over many years to provide a specification of the many areas of competence required by individuals to operate effectively in the workplace – ultimately the ‘tree’ results in National Occupational; Standards for individuals.
The updated Map identifies the emerging future skills changes – encompassing issues such as carbon criticality, sustainability, sustainable communities, operating methods, modern methods of construction etc., as well as a range of functions that both directly and indirectly requirements relating to heritage and conservation needs.
The Map has now been published on a new BESA website –www.besa-uk.org.uk/ and will provide a fundamental platform, helping to co-ordinate the SSCs’ work and also identify gaps and changes in each individual area. This will inform the sector’s qualifications frameworks and whether new qualifications would be required, or existing ones require updating. This work is equally applicable to informing further and higher education, training provision, vocational competence qualifications, professional qualifications and curricula at all levels across all Construction and Built Environment sectors and occupations. It will help to ensure that there is co-ordinated education, training and qualification provision across all home nation national qualification frameworks that is relevant and valued. It will also significantly inform the implementation of the identified DBIS Innovation and Growth Team Low Carbon skills needs targets.
CIC is also specifically responsible for the industry-defined Professional, Managerial and Technical National Occupational Standards within the Functional Map, that provide the benchmark for defining the ‘Future Skills’ needs of the professional community. These can be accessed at:http://www.cic.org.uk/standards/
Download the Built Environment Functional Map HERE
For details see the sub-pages on the Built Environment Functional Map, including the Functional Map for Placemaking, at www.besa-uk.org.uk
