Industrialising the construction industry : a collaborative training and education model

Nadim, W

Abstract

The United Kingdom (UK) construction industry has long been the centre of
criticism and debate for its relative poor performance and high turnover. In this
respect, the UK Government embarked on reviving Offsite Production (OSP)
in an attempt to negate these issues, whilst simultaneously reducing the
dependence on manual skills. However, extant literature highlights that
professional (non-manual) skill shortages are just as acute. Notwithstanding
these factors, from a training and education perspective, it is widely
acknowledged that the myriad of approaches currently deployed to address
professional education and training needs have systematically failed to fully
satisfy industry's expectations. This is due in part to the lack of a 'common
language' between the construction industry and the training/education
providers. Given that OSP training and education is a predominant driver for
the successful and wider uptake of OSP, there is no direct empirical evidence
on the type, level, or priorities of OSP training and education required to meet
the new exigent business drivers.
This research focuses on addressing the polarised silos that currently exist
between industry and training/education providers through the provision of a
flexible collaborative model. This model embodies multi-criteria and multistakeholder
perceptions and imperatives in order to help provide a 'shared'
language and understanding across these multivariate issues to formally
identify and prioritise OSP training and education needs. This research
adopted a system approach to OSP training and education using the Quality
Function Deployment (QFD) method to develop an OSP-QFD model. The
positioning of this research adopts the positivism paradigm to infer OSP skills
requirements, underpinned and supported by a triangulation approach to
define the measures to satisfy those needs and help increase the validity and
reliability of the data obtained. The model was iteratively tested and validated
using domain experts from industry, academia and research organisations.
Research findings confirmed the scepticism and misconception of the
construction industry and academia with regard to OSP and industryacademia
collaboration. However, the developed OSP-QFD model
demonstrated that it could be used to shape, structure, and document the
skills needed from multivariate viewpoints, thereby addressing the different
drivers and expectations of the polarised stakeholders. Furthermore, the
OSP-QFD model accommodates design flexibility, so that individual priorities
can be independently assessed and analysed.

Citation

Nadim, W. Industrialising the construction industry : a collaborative training and education model. (Thesis). Salford : University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2012
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2009