Abstract:
Construction Industry has become one of the most important industries of any country (Frisk, 1997). A construction project involves craftsmen of various trades in order to complete the project in time and with quality standards. In order to obtain this, craftsmen/tradesmen need to have sufficient training and education in their respective trades. Moreover, literature suggests that human capabilities can be enhanced with better education and training. Construction vocational courses involve trades such as carpenter, mason/brick layer, building electrician, plumber, painter, polisher, welder etc. Their training programs range from few weeks to two years and entry qualifications vary from primary to secondary school pass.
Some researchers (Kardar, 2004; Iftikhar, 2004) have attempted to study the overall technical and vocational training system of the country but little to no effort have been made to focus on the vocational training related to construction industry of Pakistan. Keeping in view the importance of this, it was decided to carry out the research in this field in Punjab province and to study the structure and the factors affecting the effectiveness of vocational courses related to construction industry. An extensive literature review was carried out to develop a structured questionnaire and sixty five (65) factors were outlined which were further grouped in eight (8) categories. After obtaining data from the field, reliability test was performed in order to confirm the authenticity of the data collected. Next individual ranking of each cause was also found among students and teachers using Relative Importance Index (RII). Percentage Agreement between students and teachers was calculated in order to get degree of agreement between their views about the factors. Ten (10) top ranked factors were also indicated based on their RII which included that current curriculum is not abreast with modern day technologies and procedures, latest books are not available for the training and regular academic site visits are not conducted for the training courses etc. In the end, some recommendations have been made in order to improve the courses being taught at Punjab technical training institutes.
