VINCI Construction UK
VINCI is a world leader in concessions and construction. Employing around 180,000 people in 100 countries around the world, VINCI has an annual revenue of €33 billion.
VINCI Construction UK has an annual turnover of around £2 billion and employs over 9,500 people. It is a national civil engineering, building and facilities company and is the largest UK subsidiary of VINCI. It offers a fully-integrated service - from inception, financing and design through to project completion and the delivery and maintenance of operational solutions.
Through its close working relationships with other VINCI companies and subsidiaries, both globally and in the UK, VINCI Construction UK is able to leverage ideas, skills and entrepreneurial flair to deliver top-quality work in all sectors.
The challenge
Accurately forecasting the cost of upcoming projects is vital to the survival of any company. In the construction industry, Estimators can determine if a building project will be profitable or if there is merit in bidding for particular contracts.
Despite the recession there is still a shortage of Estimators across the industry. The age profile of people in these roles is increasing with companies competing to attract the most experienced and talented people. This shortage is likely to worsen as the UK comes out of recession.
VINCI recognised the need for an appropriate strategy to ensure the skills gap does not impact negatively on the future growth and profitability of the business. This led them to approach University of Derby Corporate (UDC) seeking support for running a programme that focused on the up-skilling and development of existing employees.
VINCI's requirements were:
- to have a clear demonstration through assessment that the delegates could apply their learning in the workplace, at the same time achieving a nationally recognised university qualification.
that the delegates would be able to demonstrate improved confidence, personal motivation and management competence. - This would then allow VINCI to assist its employees so that they could support their understanding and knowledge of estimating best practice and equip them with new techniques and/or new ways of working that better prepared them for the Estimator's role. In turn, this would result in increased productivity for the business and provide advancement opportunities for the delegates.
The solution
As part of the development stage, UDC specialist staff undertook site visits to examine the roles and responsibilities of Estimators within the company to ensure course content and assessments were appropriately aligned to the Estimating role within VINCI.
A VINCI Advanced Diploma in Estimating was developed consisting of two, 30 credit, Level 6 modules:
- Estimating (30 credits, Level 6)
- Negotiated Work Based Module (30 credits, Level 6)
The programme timeframe was set at 36 weeks made up of three 1 week residential sessions and 33 weeks work based learning, to allow the delegates to study around their current work commitments.
To successfully achieve an Advanced Diploma in Estimating, delegates are expected to provide evidence in a work related context that they can clearly relate the application of their learning to their workplace and demonstrate tangible benefits to their organisation.
Therefore each delegate has a unique opportunity to identify a specific area of interest or a project relating to estimating within VINCI and to pursue this as a specialist study option. This enables them to develop and enhance a range of practical and transferable skills by drawing on current organisational practices within their workplace.
Each delegate is supported by a work-based mentor - usually their manager.
Mentors were provided with the opportunity to attend a one day mentor training workshop delivered by the UDC prior to the start of the programme.
The outcome
Initial feedback on the programme is showing immediate results. Delegates believe they have grown in confidence, have enhanced their practical skills and have improved their sharing of knowledge and understanding.
Joanne Mercer is the Head of Learning and Development.
She says: "UDC worked pro-actively with us to ensure that the programme was both relevant and work-based. Estimating is an essential skill for us, and it was important that we supported our employees to not only understand the theory, but be empowered to put the skill into practice. UDC has met this requirement and we have also developed a useful partnership with an organisation which is keen to understand our business and respond to our needs.
The cost of implementation and delivery was compared with existing 'off the shelf' programmes, none of which were aimed specifically at Estimating. The UDC programme had key added value as it related specifically to estimating within VINCI, giving an immediate return on investment in terms of the delegates' understanding of the VINCI way and how they can improve process and procedure based upon best practice".
One of the VINCI mentors has commented - "the course not only helps those currently in an estimating role, it has also added depth of knowledge to those working as quantity surveyors. One of the new skills the delegates have learned has helped them evaluate value engineering options, offering our clients better value and giving us a competitive edge".
There is already interest in a second cohort following an initial review of this pilot programme, along with the potential to use this 'development model' to address other skills gaps.
