Company Announcement - As the rejuvenated post-recession construction industry continues to contribute upwards of £92.4 billion in annual economic output and support more than 2.1 million UK jobs*; the NEC suite of contracts has answered unprecedented demand for ‘future-proof’ training with the launch of a new  designated commercial management course. The new one-day training course, entitled Commercial Management using the NEC3 ECC, has been established to enhance users’ integral ability to ensure all projects achieve business objectives and are delivered using a smooth, collaborative framework, on time and to budget.

The launch comes just weeks after Dr David Hancock, Head of Construction at the Cabinet Office, addressed the NEC Users’ Group Seminar regarding the UK Construction 2025 strategy, stating that that the construction industry ‘stands at a crossroads’.  Mr Hancock outlined that: “Poor contracts will inevitably lead to poor outcomes”, and emphasised the importance of good working relationships: “Once the contract is in place, behavioural competencies are at the forefront of many successful projects, promoting collaboration at all levels of the supply chain.”

NEC has launched the new course to support the critical equipping of delegates with the skills necessary to be able to successfully manage commercial contracts and project partner relationships using the NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC).
Building on the overwhelming success last year of the sell-out ECC Project Manager Accreditation programme, the new course offers a consolidated one-day programme that focusses specifically on the commercial elements of an ECC project.
Delegates gain an appreciation of what commercial management means under the ECC, so that they understand the core, main and secondary option clauses that affect commercial management and appreciate the need for an ethos based on mutual trust and cooperation.

Benefitting from peer reviewed content and expert delivery from an NEC specialist, those who attend come away with clarity on how to develop a commercial management plan in practice. Rekha Thawrani, general manager for NEC, comments: “The unprecedented success of the project management course, coupled with the critical importance of maintaining the continued growth of the UK construction sector, has resulted in high demand and the need for a wider project and commercial management skills base.

“We’ve received phenomenal support for the launch of the Commercial Management using the NEC3 ECC course and it is similar in its approach and ethos to the rest of the NEC3 family, in that it promotes collaborative working.

“NEC3 is used globally to successfully deliver some of today’s best renowned infrastructure projects and the use of NEC continues to rise.

“Therefore it’s vital to ensure that the people responsible for seeing through the contract have the support and training they need. This training helps users to master the details of the contract and feel confident in the way that they can deliver business objectives on time and to budget using an effective and collaborative framework.”

The course is available in either a classroom format at a venue provided by NEC, or a tailored in-house format, whereby NEC tutors deliver directly to organisations, at a time and place to suit the users. In-house training allows for organisation-specific learning and objectives to be integrated into the programme.