Summary
• Wood Campus is an online information service for builders, merchants and architects.
• It’s been developed by Jewson, Buildbase and Swedish Wood in partnership with industry organisations.
• All the information is updated by the relevant industry body.
• Wood for Good’s RIBA-accredited CPD courses are integral to the site.

The new Wood Campus, which provides learning and information tools for professional users of wood, is a result of the timber industry and its supply chain working together (www.woodcampus.co.uk).

The new online service is a joint initiative between two of the major distributors, Jewson and Buildbase, and producer Swedish Wood, in partnership with Wood for Good, TRADA, the Timber Decking & Cladding Association (TDCA) and the Wood Window Alliance (WWA).

Wood Campus is an online information service with a searchable database that’s tailor-made for builders and merchant staff, coupled with RIBA-accredited online learning, complete with management review capability, targeted at architects. It delivers information on a wide range of timber topics that will be kept up to date by each of the relevant specialist organisations. And it provides the opportunity to bring together the industry’s promotional information and complements the timber industry’s existing portals: the issues-based Wood for Good; and TRADA’s technical resource.

What was to become Wood Campus started five years ago with the launch of Wood for Good Online Learning. Conceived as a way of supplementing architects’ generally rather thin training on how to build with wood, the courses were CPD-accredited by RIBA and, with the growing interest in low carbon building, soon developed a user base of around 3,000 registered architects.

But architects weren’t the only people using Online Learning. Timber industry companies and the big merchants found it a useful tool for their staff and customers alike. And when Swedish Wood embarked on its Distributors’ Project in 2010, one of the main findings of its in-store research was the need for a straightforward online information resource – including shorter, simpler information pieces.

As plans for co-operative promotion with Jewson and Buildbase progressed, it became clear that the CPD Online Learning courses would fit part of the need, but that a way had to be found to keep the information on each module up to date, and that different target audiences wanted different levels of information.

Industry partnerships

This was achieved by developing partnerships with the industry associations most relevant to the subject of each module. So, in addition to the co-operation with Wood for Good and with TRADA (which is responsible for the Choose and Use builders’ factsheets), the TDCA and the WWA have joined the project. It’s hoped that other organisations will also join Wood Campus.

Armed with the material from the different partners, and with the distribution channels opened up by Jewson and Buildbase, the new Wood Campus will reach many thousands of users across the industry. These will be additional users, as people already registered on Online Learning (the Timber Academy) have been able to re-register to Wood Campus without losing their learning track record.

Wood Campus is a free resource, but it goes much further than online learning. It has a wider user base, including the building trade, and a broader spread of content. It includes social networking, a search facility to provide instant access to information about specific issues, and five levels of information.

The full-length Wood for Good RIBA-accredited CPD courses, revised and updated, are integral to the site. But there are now shorter pieces: new fast track CPD courses on decking and windows, and “90-second know-how” videos giving trade tips for builders on strength and spans, flooring, cladding, decking, windows, fire doors, engineered wood, treated wood and sheet materials.

Builders’ factsheets

TRADA’s Choose and Use series of builders’ factsheets, which can be viewed online or downloaded, have been updated to include more detailed information.

Finally, there’s a section bringing together all the industry’s other information resources, including videos and publications.

Jewson and Buildbase, which have published their own timber tips leaflets as part of the Distributors’ Project, are promoting the Wood Campus content to their customers. It is available, free to registered customers, via the Jewson Greenworks Gateway (www.greenworks-gateway.co.uk) and the Buildbase website (www.buildbase.co.uk).

All the parties involved in establishing Wood Campus are pleased with the result.

Jan Söderlind, director of the International Wood Programme for Swedish Wood, was pleased to see strong support from major UK organisations and companies for this promotional initiative. “This type of project fits in very well with our activities in markets throughout Europe and the Far East. We look forward to a continuing UK co-operation in this very important market sector,” he said.

Andy Moseley, Jewson’s market director for Timber & LBM, said that Wood Campus would be “an invaluable tool for all professionals in the industry who work with wood”.

Buildbase managing director Stephen Thompstone said the new service would build on the online learning which, over the past four years, had become a key route for the company’s staff to develop their product and technical knowledge. “The addition of the Wood Campus content takes us to a higher level for timber training,” he said.

Wood for Good is also pleased with the outcome. “I’m delighted that Swedish Wood, the timber industry and the major trade distributors have worked together to keep Wood for Good’s online learning up to date and to provide this useful information for the trade,” said chairman John Kissock.

Companies and organisations that would like to share their information on Wood Campus should contact Tony Traynor at tony@woodcampus.co.uk.