DEVELOPING A SUCCESSFUL COMMUNICATIONS BASED MODULE FOR UNDERGRATUATE STUDENTS IN A CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT DEGREE PROGRAMME

Undergraduate students hoping to gain employment in the Irish construction industry are facing increasingly difficult challenges at present. Due to the recession the number of job opportunities has severely contracted. There is huge competition for jobs between the potential graduates of the various third level colleges offering construction degrees throughout Ireland, and to a lesser extent graduates from institutes outside Ireland.
In my own discipline of Self development and learning skills great emphasis is being placed on ensuring students have the necessary communication skills needed to enter the workplace today. Interviews with professionals in the construction industry in Ireland appear to suggest that whilst recent graduates have the various technical, academic and analytical skills and knowledge needed, too often there is a problem in successfully communicating such information. As a professional in the delivery of a communications module I have always recognised the importance of this area. What this paper hopes to achieve is to see how we can write a communications based module that will give our students the best possible knowledge and expertise in this important area.
It is proposed to conduct extensive primary research among:
- Construction industry professionals
- Academic staff delivering construction modules
- Undergraduate construction management students (full and part time)
- Recently graduated construction management students either in employment or pursuing post graduate studies.
Students from different undergraduate years will be surveyed to establish their opinions on all elements of the current module. This will take the form of a survey conducted electronically. Such feedback will be analysed in detail. It is also proposed to monitor the different observations of full time students versus part time students. In general part time students tend to be older, more mature and are actually working in the construction industry. Such students will have different viewpoints and different issues such as time limitations and what they are trying to achieve from their studies. Construction industry professionals will advise on what they are looking for in terms of communication skills from entrants into the industry and where there are perceived problems in this area. My fellow academic will give their observation on how our current communications based module is working. As the various modules in the programme involve students making presentations and writing reports, the feedback gained here should be particularly valuable. Secondary research will also be undertaken.
The aim is to establish the best practices that should be applied to our undergraduate programmes so as to develop world class graduates who can make positive contributions to today’s construction industry. It will also gather feedback from all relevant stakeholders in this area and examining the different issues prioritised by them. All results will be published in this proposed paper.