Othman, A A E (2014) A study of the competency requirements of property development graduates to meet the qualifications of the South African construction industry. Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, 12(1), pp. 2-28. ISSN 1726-0531
Abstract
Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the competency requirements of property development (PD) graduates at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) as an approach to fulfil the qualifications of the construction industry in South Africa (SA). Design/methodology/approach: To achieve the above-mentioned aim, a research methodology is designed to accomplish three objectives. First, literature review is used to investigate the structure of the (PD) programme at (UKZN), National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and construction management (CM) education. Second, survey questionnaires are used to investigate the relevancy of the (PD) programme at (UKZN) towards meeting the (NQF) unit standards and the South African construction industry (SACI) requirements. Finally, summarising the conclusions and recommendations useful for future improvement of (PD/CM) education in SA. Collected data are analysed using the measure of central tendency and dispersion as well as Relative Importance Index (RII). Findings: Although the research revealed that the (PD) programme succeeded in graduating students who are adequately equipped to meet the expectations of the (SACI), a number of key areas and issues have been highlighted to enhance the (PD/CM) education in (SA) generally and (UKZN) in particular. Addressing these issues will increase the competency of (PD) graduates to meet the expectations of an ever-changing construction industry. Originality/value: This paper identifies the competency requirements of (PD) graduates at the KwaZulu-Natal region, a topic that received scant attention in construction literature and has not been previously undertaken in UKZN.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | built environment research; curriculum development; education and professional development; property development |
| Index terms: | construction industry, property development, graduating student, research methodology, education and professional development, qualification, built environment research, South Africa, curriculum development, methodology, questionnaire, relative importance index, literature review, survey, programme |
| Subjects: | student development, industry analysis, research management, project controls, professional development, Geography, educational resources, research methods, economic development, curriculum development, data analysis and analytics, research design and methodology, risk assessment, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Urban Studies, Education, Time Control, Research Practice, Geographical Context, Risk Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here