Abstract:
Construction is one of the most essential industries in Pakistan and a critical asset in
helping the country succeed in a globally competitive market. Construction industry
performance to a large extent is backed by the competence and skills generated by
Construction Engineering and Management (CEM) programs offered by Pakistani
universities.
Construction management education programs and the industry are both connected to
the lifeline of industry’s survival and development. The industry requires the
construction management programs to not only provide an adequate number of
graduates, but also properly train its future leaders in the skillset required in order to
quickly become productive workers. Therefore it is inevitable that the construction
management programs must be constantly revamped and enhanced to address the
education needs of the industry. The value of well-defined and structured courses as
well as industry experiences and feedback must be inclusive to the programs. These
programs need the industry to provide support and input to improve the future
construction manager’s education and experience level before entry into the workforce.
This research focused on finding ways for the improvement of the construction industry
based on the evaluation of existing practices, curricula and teaching/delivery
methodology. It identifies the critical skillset needed for construction managers as
perceived by the industry and further examines the relative differences in importance
of the skills as perceived by the industry in contrast to academia. The findings are based
on the data from two major universities offering postgraduate level CEM education:
NEDUET, Karachi and NUST, Islamabad. Most of the respondents (61%), who entered
into these programs to improve their technical skills and enhance their project
management competencies, agreed that the program is well designed with good number
of compulsory and optional courses. While evaluating the teaching methodology,
approximately 81% respondents agreed that more than 60% major course content was
satisfactorily delivered by well versed and competent course instructors.
This study would be instrumental in providing recommendations to update/overhaul
CEM curricula and mode of deliverance in order to bridge the gap between academia
and industry as well as to enhance the existing program’s effectiveness with respect to
construction industry advancements.
