Elize Lutz and Harrie Dekkers are not names you will instantly recognise but, in April this year, they made history: they moved into the first 3D-printed house in Europe. The retired couple from Amsterdam opened the door to their two-bedroom bungalow - shaped like a boulder - and, with that act, a new age of construction (and in construction training) was firmly established. The building trade had become truly digital.

OK, so we’re not going to be putting up 3,000 homes on a local brownfield site via 3D-printing technology for some time yet but, together with innovative technologies such as drones and 3D scanners, the construction trade is certainly evolving fast.

To keep up, almost 50 per cent of jobs in construction now require specific digital skills, according to recent research by Investors in People, and that means colleges have had to adapt rapidly to ensure the next generation of construction workers are qualified to operate such technologies.

The driver for the speed of the technological overhaul of the building trade has predominantly been financial: new technologies claim to reduce overhead costs and increase efficiency. Research from the Construction Products Association estimates that those promises will be seized upon: construction output overall fell by as much as 25 per cent in 2020 as a result of the global pandemic and the lockdown measures that followed. There is a lot of lost time to make up for.

“Digitalisation opens up the opportunities to enhance processes and logistics to achieve big gains in quality and efficiency which, in turn, equal productivity and profit,” says Marcus Bennett, head of industry analysis and forecasting at the Construction Industry Training Board.

‘Drones have become mainstream’

How might something like a drone help a builder hit a deadline?

“There are numerous individual examples where technologies adopted in recent years have helped sections of the industry achieve a step change,” claims Bennett. “Drones are a good example, where a technology linked with scanning or imaging technologies like Lidar (a method for determining ranges by targeting an object with a laser) have improved the speed, capability, quality and safety of all sorts of surveying applications.

“Even small companies have drone operators or buy in those services when they are needed, so that is a technology that is now mainstream.”

This is a good example of how training is having to adapt in step with these industry advances. The use of drones by even the smallest of companies means that proficiency in operating these gadgets is now a must-have qualification for those hiring within the surveying industry.

To ensure its students are equipped with these now sought-after digital skills, Stoke on Trent College has been quick to invest in drone technology for those on its “unique” construction course.

Tim Johnson, head of learning for construction at Stoke on Trent College, explains: “We’ve got five Phantom Four RTK drones, and there aren’t many college courses around the UK yet using these technologies. The idea with drones is that you can survey large and hard-to-reach areas. While this may have taken a few days or a couple of weeks to survey - and not necessarily accurately - drones can do it within a day, within a few millimetres of accuracy.”

Another development the college has had to accommodate is the use of 3D scanners to create detailed drawings, so it bought a £30,000 piece of kit for its trainees.

“This is a major investment,” Johnson says. “Small companies won’t have this type of kit ready to go straight out of the box, but bigger companies would have this type of equipment. It’s all about giving our students these up-to-date, futuristic skills.”

What’s worrying for colleges is that new - and expensive - technologies are going to keep arriving in the industry, with hefty price tags. Take, for example, VR (virtual reality) technology.

“Virtual and augmented reality opens up a number of interesting possibilities but, for now, are limited to design applications in all but the most sophisticated projects,” says Bennett. “I think a number see potential in coming years for artificial intelligence and automation to create new devices and capabilities to support on-site workers. But we’ll have to wait a while to see how quickly that comes true.”

‘Huge potential’

The VR applications for construction are not just industry applications but have training uses, too, he argues.

“These technologies open up huge potential in relation to training and development - where training can be delivered in a representative environment, progress can be monitored and accredited, training can be completed away from a traditional classroom and individuals can develop skills at their own pace in a safe environment. So the potential cost and quality benefits are huge.”

To help colleges get a head start, the Construction Wales Innovation Centre (CWIC) has partnered with a number of colleges to introduce a virtual reality experience aimed at future-proofing construction education for students.

One of these hands-on opportunities is a virtual reality programme - using CWIC’s Virtual Built Environment Element Explorer (VBEEE) software - which aims to “gamify” the construction process. The software allows students to explore and experience the process by constructing a variety of different buildings virtually and, once complete, it allows learners to compare the performance, sustainability and cost measures built into them.

“For education and the construction industry, immersive and remote training is engaging, cost-effective and safe. It also provides trainees with the true-to-life experience not currently possible,” says Gareth Wyn Evans, manager at CWIC.

“By exploring, gaining familiarity with and practising in our simulated environment, knowledge and skills can be gained without any interruption of real-world consequences.”

While this support will be welcome, it’s focused on just one area. How can colleges best keep in touch with what is needed more generally? Bennett believes colleges should turn to the construction industry for support.

“The pressure is on and challenges for colleges are already immense, so they’ll need support in helping the industry to modernise through supporting individuals gaining a greater range of competencies,” he says.

“Industry repeatedly says it needs individuals with a greater diversity of skills - not just activity-specific technical skills but better attitudinal and behavioural competency, numeracy, risk management, communication, process management and digital skills that allow them to know how to use the right technologies in the right situation.

“Increasingly, we’ll see pressure to support broader digitalisation skills, to support building using modern methods and to meet the gigantic challenge of retrofitting nearly all of the UK’s built environment to meet net-zero carbon targets. Part of the mix will include using AR (augmented reality) and VR appropriately. And it makes sense, in some circumstances, to work closely in collaboration with industry and other colleges to share the risk, and learning and benefits.”

Stoke on Trent College has already felt this pressure. While it’s been quick to make large investments in the technologies mentioned earlier, the biggest challenge for the provider has been retraining its workforce to use - and demonstrate - these devices.

“Carpentry, in particular, has been the same for 2,000 years,” says Johnson. “We need to make sure that people are coming through the door willing and open to retraining. It takes a lot longer when you’ve got a workforce of a particular age, as you’ve got to make sure that they are technologically aware and have the digital skills to start off with.”

The digital transformation of construction is clearly not going to be easy, then, but what is encouraging is that everyone seems to understand and accept the need to go on that journey. And if Lutz and Dekkers can take a punt on 3D printing in their late 60s and early 70s, then the much younger college community should surely be able to do the same.

Carly Page is a freelance journalist

This article originally appeared in the 2 July 2021 issue under the headline “Digital training is the new bricks and mortar of the building trade”