Owner of the original system Michiel Schrijver with the device that navigates through the virtual building site.

The Advanced Construction Technologies centre, the bulk of which will contain the world’s second ever virtual reality simulation training centre for construction managers and professionals, should be up and running by autumn  2008 and could provide training for several thousand people a year. It is modelled on a similar centre in Leeuwarden in the Netherlands, whose owner Michiel Schrijver gave  a small scale demonstration of how the final result would look.

The centre will also include a continuing professional development centre, collaboration centre, industry showcase and business centre.  The CPD Centre will particularly focus on the technical and inter-personal skills needed for effective collaborative working.

The ACT-UK project, to be built at Coventry University, still needs an additional £1.1 million (EUR 1.65m) from industry.

A last-minute illness prevented Sir Michael Latham, chairman of training organisation CITB ConstructionSkills, from delivering his speech, which was given instead by Sandra Bell, West Midlands area manager for CITB ConstructionSkills. “ACT-UK is a beacon of partnership, collaboration and innovation. Not only does it champion partnership and collaboration as part of its make-up – working closely with the public sector, industry bodies, educational establishments and representatives from private companies – but through the innovative use of technology and a real understanding of the modern day industry, it will enable the current and future managers within the workforce to experience successful, collaborative working at first hand.

“All of this is vital, because the need for the construction industry to be at the top of its game has never been greater. We have a large number of high profile projects we need to deliver on time and to budget – from the Olympics and the Thames Gateway.

“These projects will need to be delivered by an industry that is still highly fragmented – made up almost entirely of small and medium sized businesses that only come together on major projects. And all of this has to be done at a time when the industry is under increasing pressure to deliver on sustainable, environmental and social challenges – from the £60,000 house, to the zero-carbon home.

“The Blueprint for UK Construction Skills, published by our own Construction Skills Network last year, predicts that the industry needs 348,000 new recruits by 2010 – an average of 87,000 new recruits every year. What’s more, those recruits will not just have to be at trade level – our research predicts that almost half of the workforce requirement will be made up by managers, architects, engineers and other design and technical professions.