Course summary

There are so many aspects to construction management – organising resources, materials, labour, and planning transport routes. Ensuring that a building project runs smoothly, with enough materials, equipment, workers and money to deliver it, is a huge task. So, too, is monitoring construction quality and progress.

This course will give you the knowledge, skills and understanding as well as industry contacts to help you develop into that role and to take on that kind of responsibility. It is also accredited by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) and fits within their educational framework for professional membership.

Key areas you will study include the planning and financing of projects, required contract law and of course health and safety knowledge – both for yourself and others. Time planning and logistics, cost control and management, and quality control are vital skills for a construction manager, and they are skills we will help you to gain through problem solving, digital collaborative working as well as traditional team work activities.

This course can also be studied part-time day release as independent study or as a sponsored student on a Degree Apprenticeship programme for Site Construction Management.

What you'll learn

You will learn a broad range of skills in your first year, sharing modules in technology, surveying, maths and IT with Civil Engineering and Surveying students. Later in your second year you will specialise in specific construction management disciplines such as tendering and estimating, cost management and control, and contract law. In your final year there are key modules in project management as well as a range of current up to date module options, including Quantity Surveying Practice and Built Asset Management.

Building without proper safety planning can be a dangerous business when it comes to working at heights, excavating and shifting materials. You’ll learn how to manage it and make it safe. You’ll also learn about sustainable design. Plus, you’ll look at the contractual side of things, and how to ensure sub-contractors work to the required standards.

You need to have good inter-personal skills and be comfortable working as part of a large team, you will also have to keep in mind your client’s requirements at all times. This course will help you learn how to juggle all these responsibilities successfully.

Career

Thanks to our excellent links with industry, graduates from this course have gone on to work on projects all over the world. Some have been involved with UK construction projects such as the Shard and the Tottenham Court Road TFL Station.

Your most likely job on graduation will be an assistant site manager, working in a role where you have responsibility for a broad range of activities. If you perform impressively on site, and deal well with people, you could soon find yourself taking responsibility for really large or intricate projects.

A typical project will take 18 months or two years, during which time you’ll be working very closely with a wide variety of people performing different jobs.

Say you are working on a rail project, or on the London Underground, where work will often need to be scheduled for weekends and Bank Holidays. You might spend six months planning for one Bank Holiday weekend, booking in equipment, materials and labour. Imagine the satisfaction you will feel when everything you have planned for comes together.