Partnership project to close current skills gap in Indian construction

'Sustainable Built Environment Ecosystem'

A research project aiming to address the current skills gap in the Indian construction industry has begun through an industry academia partnership, funded by the British Council’s Going Global Partnership Grant.

In the long term, the project aims to develop a skills hub and Postgraduate Diploma in Built Environment with a target annual intake of up to 50 Indian students to study here in Liverpool, or in India, to address the skills shortage. 

Three day workshop on LJMU campus

LJMU hosted the project partners from India, earlier this summer, including academics from Dr. Bhanuben Nanavati College of Architecture for Women and an industrialist from Pune Construction Engineering Research Foundation, at a series of workshops, on campus, to discuss the ongoing ‘Industry Academia Co-operation for Sustainable Built Environment Ecosystem’ project. 

PVC Research and Knowledge Exchange, Professor Keith George; PVC Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Professor Nduka Ekere; Director of the School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Professor Mike Riley; Associate Dean Research and Knowledge Exchange, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Professor Jin Wang; Director of Liverpool School of Art and Design Archt. Ian Wroot; plus members of staff from the School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Astrophysics Research Institute, Maritime Centre of Liverpool John Moores University, and industrialists from Laing O’Rouke, Kier Construction, and Tetra Tech, contributed to the discussions and project activities. Dr. Anurag Kashyap, Principal, BNCA also attended the event.

The team took part in a three-day workshop including site visits, participation in industry led presentations and discussions, hands on experience of digital technologies adopted in higher education pedagogy, all of which were part of their train the trainer activities. 

Preliminary discussions were also undertaken to explore avenues to further strengthen collaboration between LJMU, BNCA and the construction industry partners in future. 

Director of the School of Engineering and Built Environment, Professor Mike Riley CBE, said:  

“The research project and collaboration with Indian partners in the construction industry shows our commitment as a globally engaged university to share the wealth of knowledge we have here at LJMU, specifically when it comes to Civil Engineering and Built Environment.  

We look forward to the mutually beneficial collaboration on this project to address the current skill gaps and develop global citizens within our students to find long term collaborative solutions.” 

The research project is led by Principal Investigator, Dr Anupa Manewa of School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering and Technology with Dr Vaishali Anagal, Associate Professor BNCA, Pune acting as the co-investigator in India.  

Find out more about the School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment. 

Find out more about LJMU’s International Partnerships.