LJMU have also validated the qualification.

The first students to embark on the degree programme will be Redrow team members and they will start their course in 2018. Over the coming years Redrow hope to open the degree out to other housebuilders.

The three-year degree gives candidates a full overview of housebuilding skills; these include housebuilding quality, project management, health and safety, business skills, negotiation, right through to relevant aspects of law, mathematics and economics. Six modules will be completed each year by students.

Candidates will be assessed in a variety of ways including examinations, coursework and a final year dissertation project. In each year there are six block weeks of classroom learning which will be taught in partnership between LJMU’s Department of the Built Environment, Coleg Cambria and Redrow business experts with the rest of the contact time satisfied through virtual learning, practical site visits and tutorials. This means that students will be able to continue to combine working with Redrow with their studies.

Any Redrow team member with a level three qualification or a minimum of five years in industry can be nominated for the programme and Redrow expects up to 15 people to participate in each year.

The first two years will form a foundation degree with the final year topping up to become a full degree in Construction Management – Housebuilding. Redrow has already seen success in 2017 through its training programme, announcing a record 353 trainees in its workforce earlier this year, a 19% increase on 2016.

Karen Jones, group HR director at Redrow and Trustee at the Construction Industry Training Board, said: “The housebuilding sector has a real opportunity to innovate the way we develop and deliver skills training to ensure colleagues can fulfil their potential and progress in their careers. Part of that means working in partnership with further education and higher education providers to develop new pathways that enable recruits to develop the aptitude, attitude and strategic nous to deliver communities at scale.

“This is why we are working with Coleg Cambria and Liverpool John Moores University to deliver the UK’s first dedicated Housebuilding Degree. Participants on the course will be able to learn while they earn and develop the skills necessary to rise through the ranks in the housebuilding sector.

“We feel it is important to share best practice with other housebuilders and we hope that in the future that the degree programme can be opened up to construction industry workers from across the industry. We believe this new programme will encourage people to enter the sector, as well as imparting crucial skills on those already in the workforce.”