Last week the University of Wolverhampton launched the first Demolition Management Master’s Degree. This course is the first of its kind on offer in the UK, and a local businessman is among the first people to sign up for the course.

Richard Dolman works for the Nuneaton based company AR Demolition and has enrolled on to the course which will begin this month at the University’s School of Architecture and Built Environment. The Master’s Degree course has been accredited by the Institute of Demolition Engineers.

The new Demolition Management course has been created with the assistance of industry experts and it is thought that the syllabus will be delivered to the students by academics and specialists in the demolition sector. The creation of this course has taken place after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding by the University of Wolverhampton and the IDE. This Memorandum was signed in September last year and looked to introduce a range of new opportunities for both students and those already working in the industry.

The demolition sector works of more than £8 billion worth of projects each year. The new qualification will hopefully attract more young people to this sector as well as making sure that current demolition engineers have access to the best opportunities for professional development possible. A number of central representatives from the industry and academics that are a part of the curriculum delivery team have attended a range of different planning meetings that have been held over the course of the last two years in order to design and create the new Master’s Degree in Demolition Management.

The degree course is a great way to make the industry more professional. For Richard Dolman, getting a degree in his career subject was an interesting prospect, and could also appeal to those who were less interested in academics earlier in life. The degree course is another step towards plugging the skills gap present in the demolition industry at all points.