Timber Development UK’s (TDUK) Wood Campus online learning platform was named winner of the TTJ Timber Innovation Prize 2026 at the TTJ Awards.
Developed by TDUK in partnership with Swedish Wood, Wood Campus was launched in September 2025 to provide accessible, high-quality training for people working throughout the timber supply chain. The platform was recognised for its approach to tackling one of the industry’s longstanding challenges: providing consistent, practical training to the entire timber supply chain, with courses designed for merchants, distributors, manufacturers, importers and processors. Completing training through Wood Campus also helps companies meet the tightening regulatory need to demonstrate competence for staff placing goods on the market, ensuring their technical knowledge and understanding of timber products.
Wood Campus has grown rapidly since its launch and now offers more than 70 courses and hundreds of hours of learning content, covering subjects ranging from solid timber and engineered wood products to MDF, decorative panels, decking, fencing, cladding and constructional wood-based panels. More than 800 people have already registered with Wood Campus and 2,000+ courses have already been completed.
Dave Hopkins, CEO of Timber Development UK, said: “We are absolutely delighted to see Wood Campus recognised with the TTJ Timber Innovation Prize. This award belongs to everyone who has helped us build the platform, contributed their knowledge and expertise, and, of course, to the hundreds of people across the industry who are already using it.
“Skills and knowledge matter enormously to the future of our sector. Timber is an incredibly diverse material and the people selling, specifying and working with it need access to training that is practical, relevant and easy to fit around their working lives. Wood Campus was created to make that possible.
“Winning this award is fantastic recognition, but we are still only getting started. We want Wood Campus to become the natural home for timber education in the UK, helping people at every stage of their career build their knowledge and giving businesses a straightforward way to invest in the skills of their teams.”
Wood Campus has been designed to work for people at different stages of their careers. Individual courses can be used to fill specific knowledge gaps, while structured learning pathways allow users to work towards industry-recognised certifications. The aim is not simply to deliver training, but to raise standards of knowledge throughout the timber supply chain and give businesses a practical resource for developing their people.
These structured learning pathways include The Essentials of Timber Supply course, a structured programme developed specifically for merchants and timber professionals. It covers areas including timber as a material, timber products and applications, stock handling, maintenance and storage, helping learners develop the knowledge they need to choose, stock, sell and advise customers on timber with greater confidence.
An Essentials of Timber Design programme is being developed for architects and designers, and will provide a central source of information about timber, its applications, benefits and sustainability credentials. Wood Campus already hosts an extensive collection of webinars and case studies examining timber buildings and construction.
For TDUK, the award reinforces the wider purpose behind Wood Campus: making high-quality timber education available to far more people than traditional training models can reach and helping the industry develop the skills it will need to support the future growth of timber construction and timber product markets. All Wood Campus courses are available free to TDUK members as part of their membership.
You can learn more about Wood Campus at www.woodcampus.co.uk
