Abstract:

Research indicates that tertiary construction management programmes address construction health and safety (H&S) to varying degrees, and in cases, to a limited extent. However, no entity is providing leadership in terms of recommendations with respect to a framework, the aspects that should be addressed, and the form of integration thereof into the respective programmes. Therefore, the lack of a framework constitutes the research gap.

Given the limited extent to which construction management programmes address construction H&S, a study was conducted, the aim being to evolve a framework for construction management construction H&S education, the objectives being to determine: the perceived importance of project parameters; H&S challenges experienced; and the extent twenty-five aspects should be included in the framework for a construction management H&S subject or component thereof.

A quantitative study, which entailed the completion of a self-administered questionnaire by a convenience ‘snowball’ sample of built environment practitioners was adopted. Discipline specific potential respondents were requested to respond solely relative to their disciplines, or if registered with more than one statutory council, to respond relative to the disciplines concerned. The twenty-five aspects presented to the potential respondents were derived from the findings of previous related studies.

The salient findings include: H&S problems that are experienced frequently as opposed to infrequently in construction; construction exposed workers to a range of H&S hazards and risks; the inclusion of construction H&S in tertiary construction management education is between more than important to very important; and the mean degree of support for the inclusion of twenty-five aspects in construction management tertiary education programmes is 97.4%. The inclusion of sixteen aspects received 100.0% support, five aspects 96.6%, one aspect 93.1%, two aspects 89.7%, and one aspect 79.3%.

It is concluded that construction H&S must be embedded in construction management programmes, and the twenty-five aspects should be included in an H&S subject, or at the very least, a component of a subject such as construction management, and such embedment must be confirmed.

The benefits of the study are that registered built environment H&S practitioners confirmed the framework for construction management H&S education.

Keywords:

Construction management, Framework, Health and safety, Tertiary education.