To coincide with International Construction Management Day the Chartered Institute of Building has released its "Craft Your Future" lessons on all versions of Minecraft.
As part of the CIOB campaign to attract the next generation of constructors it has developed "vanilla" versions of "Craft Your Future" so that "teachers, construction professionals, and young people everywhere can learn about the value of construction management and the exciting career choice it offers through Minecraft", the institute said.
With the UK facing a severe skills shortage, the CIOB developed "Craft Your Future" as a construction game for 12-14-year-olds that takes place in Minecraft. Through it young learners explore the methods and skills to become a construction manager, introducing them to a career in construction.
Bridget Bartlett, deputy chief executive at the CIOB, said: "There are 16 hours of lessons freely available for teachers, CIOB members and other professionals to use in the classroom. We want as many people as possible to have access to these lessons and have worked hard to develop a solution that works on all Minecraft platforms not just Minecraft Education.
"The beauty of Minecraft and our lessons is that they are open source. Anyone wanting to teach them can and has access to all the supporting tools they will need. We are already seeing a mixture of construction employers and schools in the UK and the US using these lessons to inspire the next generation of construction managers."
The CIOB lessons are aimed at 12-14-year-olds and take place in Newtown, a specially created virtual city in Minecraft, to design, plan, collaborate and build solutions that develop a sustainable future for all its citizens. Exercises also include real-life scenarios like the challenge of restoring Battersea Power Station.
Minecraft is being successfully used in schools to teach computer science programming, chemistry, physics, architecture and even introducing some of the world’s most famous artists to young people through games like Tate Worlds by the Tate.
Such is the impact of Minecraft it was announced by the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (Northern Ireland) that it will provide free licenses to over 200 schools (circa 50,000 school children), and 30 libraries in Northern Ireland to inspire creative writing and engage young people in city planning.
Working with The Gameworkshop from Denmark and the Danish Architecture Centre each CIOB lesson runs between three and six hours where groups of students, usually in teams of three or four, collaborate across the lessons. The lessons cover four areas of construction, maintenance, restoration, new build and refurbishment.
Further information about the CIOB Craft Your Future lessons can be found at www.ciobmc.org
