CDM 2015: Project Roles, Responsibilities and Coordination

Most CVs say “knowledge of CDM 2015”, and most free courses stop at explaining what the regulations say. This course takes you further. You apply the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 to a realistic civil engineering project in Great Britain, make the decisions that clients, designers and contractors actually face, and finish with eight pieces of portfolio work and an instructor-marked final project that you can describe on your CV and discuss at interview.

Why this course is different

Employers rarely ask whether you have heard of CDM. They ask how you have used it.

In an interview for a graduate, site or design role, the useful questions sound like this: who was the client on that job, how did you know a principal designer was needed, what did you do when a supplier changed the product, and how did that information reach the people on site? A list of regulations does not answer any of them.

This course is built around those questions. Every lesson follows one fictional but realistic project, the Brookfield access road, drainage and equipment base, where a warehouse has to keep running while the work happens around it. Designs change, a second contractor arrives, a product becomes unavailable and people disagree about who is responsible. You read the project records, decide what the regulations require and write it up the way a capable engineer would.

Awareness course or this course?

A typical awareness course	This course
Lists the dutyholders	You identify them from contracts, emails and site records
States the duties	You apply them to decisions with real consequences
Multiple-choice test	A written project assessed by me, with feedback
Certificate of attendance	Eight pieces of work plus an assessed project you can discuss

Your CV, before and after

What you will be able to write, honestly

The difference is specific, evidenced work. Because the projects are fictional, you list them under training or professional development, never as employment. That honesty is a strength: you can explain every line in detail, which is exactly what an interviewer will test.

Before

Skills

• Knowledge of CDM 2015
• Understanding of health and safety on site
• Good communication and teamwork

True, but every other applicant says the same, and none of it shows what you can do.

After the course

Professional development: CDM 2015 Project Roles, Responsibilities and Coordination (instructor-assessed, 2026)

• Mapped client, designer, principal designer, contractor and principal contractor responsibilities across a multi-package civil project delivered beside a live warehouse (case study).
• Wrote a designer risk note applying the eliminate, reduce and control order to drainage chamber access and future maintenance.
• Assessed principal appointment and HSE notification requirements from programme and contract records and recorded a reasoned decision.
• Prepared a coordination response to a late supplier change affecting design, construction and site operations.
• Passed an instructor-marked final assessment on a separate depot project, with written feedback.

Already working? Make it real.

Each lesson ends with a short “Use it at work” task that applies the same tool to a project you are involved in, within your employer’s rules on sharing information. If you do that, you can write about real project work, for example “Checked principal appointment and notification records for a drainage scheme and raised a missing written appointment with the project manager”. Only write what you actually did; the course shows you how to describe it well.

What you leave with

Eight pieces of work, built lesson by lesson

Each one is a short professional document of the kind used on real projects. Together they become your course portfolio, which you can use to prepare for interviews and refer to when you talk about your training.

1. Project briefingA one-page briefing that tells a new team member what the project is, who is involved and where the risks sit.Shows: reading a project quickly

2. Client arrangements reviewA check of appointments, time, information and welfare, with the gaps you would raise.Shows: spotting problems early

3. Designer risk noteChamber access and maintenance worked through eliminate, reduce and control, with the information others need.Shows: safety through design

4. Coordination recordA design interface issue traced between client, designers and contractor, then closed with evidence.Shows: coordination that actually closes

5. Interface and worker briefing noteHow two contractors’ work fits together, and instructions the people doing it can act on.Shows: thinking about site reality

6. Appointment and notification decision recordWhether principal roles and an HSE notice are needed, calculated from the records and justified.Shows: applying the law accurately

7. Change control responseA late supplier proposal traced across design, construction and operations before anyone relies on it.Shows: managing change safely

8. Responsibility mapThe whole project on one page: functions, duties, interfaces and the evidence behind them.Shows: seeing the full picture

Plus: your assessed projectThe Ashcombe depot, a fresh project you work through on your own and I mark, with written feedback.Shows: independent judgement

At interview

Answers with substance

Lesson 19 helps you turn your portfolio into interview answers. Here is the kind of answer the course prepares you to give.

“How would you know whether a project needs a principal designer?”

“It depends on the contractors, not the size of the job. If more than one contractor is involved, or it is reasonably foreseeable that there will be, even one after another, the client has to appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor in writing before construction starts. In my CDM training project the civil contractor finished before the electrical contractor arrived, and someone argued that meant no principal roles were needed. I showed from the records that it was still a two-contractor project, then checked notification separately: the programme ran past 30 working days but never had more than 20 people on site at once, and stayed under 500 person days, so it did not need an HSE notice even though it did need the appointments.”

Specific, accurate and honest about where the experience came from. That is what makes an answer convincing.

Your teacher

Learn from a practising engineer who has taught at university level

Damilola Akinniyi, PhD, FHEA

I am a geotechnical engineer with about 15 years across industry, research and university teaching in Nigeria, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. Today I work on UK water and wastewater infrastructure, including treatment works, tanks, pipelines and earthworks, where the questions this course teaches you to answer, about who is responsible, what information people need and how changes are controlled, come up on real projects all the time.

Before returning to industry I was Head of Geotechnics at Coventry University and a Visiting Lecturer at Aston University, teaching MSc students. Earlier I completed my PhD at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and stayed on as a Postdoctoral Fellow, before working in engineering consultancy in Hong Kong. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, the UK’s professional recognition for teaching in higher education.

I built this course because I have watched capable engineers lose out at interview, not through lack of ability, but because they could not show how they had applied what they knew. I mark every final assessment myself and give you written feedback, so the certificate means you have shown your reasoning to someone who has both practised and taught engineering.

• About 15 years in industry, research and teaching
• PhD, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• Former Head of Geotechnics, Coventry University
• Visiting Lecturer, Aston University
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Mentor to students and early-career engineers

This course is my own independent work. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by my employer, the Health and Safety Executive or any professional body. Read more about me.

Across 19 practical lessons in five stages you follow the Brookfield access road, drainage and equipment base project beside a working warehouse. You write a project briefing, a client arrangements review, a designer risk note, a coordination record, a contractor interface plan and worker briefing, an appointment and notification decision record, a change control response and a complete responsibility map. Every lesson includes a “Use it at work” task for people already on projects, and the CV line and interview answer the lesson earns. Lesson 19 then turns your portfolio into an honest CV entry and interview answers.

Package: £250, ongoing access to the lessons, one final assessment with written feedback within 10 working days, and one resubmission within 30 days of feedback. Submit your initial assessment within 12 months of enrolment; course support is included for those 12 months. A Certificate of Assessed Completion is issued when you pass.

This is independent, instructor-assessed training on fictional projects. It does not guarantee a job, interview, sponsorship, professional accreditation or competence to accept a statutory appointment.

See the full course details, including all 19 lessons, the final assessment and answers to common questions, or try the free sample lesson.