Sims, B L (1999) Program assessment of the mechanical contractors association of America's Construction Continuing Education Project Management Course. PhD thesis, Purdue University, USA.
Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation was to perform a research study on current practicing construction industry employees who were voluntary students in the Institute for Project Management's Managing for Profit two-week intensive course. The goal was to obtain data on the usefulness and value of a construction continuing education course from current practicing construction industry employees. A questionnaire was mailed to members of the Mechanical Contractors Association of America who had completed their Institute for Project Management's Managing for Profit two-week course from the spring of 1994 to the spring of 1998. These students are current mechanical construction professionals who have had the opportunity to practice the skills that were learned in the construction continuing education Managing for Profit course and can provided quality insight into the training received. The following conclusions were derived from the results of this study: 1) the students expected to learn a great deal of project management skills in the Managing for Profit course and they indicated that after completion of the course they did find the project management skills gained during the course useful in their work. 2) the students believed that the information obtained from the course covered their company's investment; 3) the most important major factors that made the course a success were the instructors and the student interaction throughout the course; 4) the least important factors associated with the course were its location and manuals; 5) the most important two individual strongly agreed points were that the Managing for Profit course provides an opportunity to learn from other students and the job cost control topic was the most important covered; 6)the individual points that needed the most improvement were the quality and effectiveness of instruction from some instructors; 7) any future curriculum changes should be planned carefully due to the many factors that had strong positive associations with each other as described in this dissertation; 8) students agreed that they would recommend this course and attend an advanced project management course.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | education; skills; cost control; investment; training; employee; professional |
| Index terms: | program, cost control, questionnaire, continuing education, profit, instructor, interaction, construction industry, dissertation, project management, construction professional, effectiveness |
| Subjects: | software systems, performance management, professional development, project management theory and practice, industry analysis, behavioral psychology, data collection methods, research dissemination and communication, practitioner, financial and cost management, economic analysis |
| Topics: | Education, Digital Applications, Quality Management, Roles and Professions, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Information Management, Research Practice, Project Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
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