Preparing construction project managers to document professional growth

Deakin University’s School of Architecture and Building is renowned for producing graduates who possess relevant attributes that make them job ready for the building and construction industry. Graduate destination surveys indicate that in the last eight (8) years, 100% of all Infrastructure Logistics (Construction and Facility Management) course graduates found relevant employment. This success is a direct result of a curriculum that is responsive to industry needs alongside educational methodology that focuses on excellent teaching and research while seeking new ways of developing and delivering courses.

The Infrastructure Logistics course prepares graduates to successfully compete in today’s global job market, and allows them to showcase relevant knowledge and skills that are critical in seeking and sustaining employment. Traditionally, tailored resumes served this purpose; however, in many professional fields, professional portfolios are now becoming a more desirable way of providing a summary of relevant attributes alongside evidence of professional abilities.

Sustaining employment, appraisals, and applying for a promotion are often subject to adequate evidence of professional standards and growth. Professional bodies require records of contribution to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) schemes; and accrediting organisations require professionals applying for professional registration to provide documented evidence of their relevant experience and abilities. The Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM 2007) requires candidates wanting to become Registered Project Managers (RegPM) to demonstrate their current work-based experience and competencies.

This paper reports on a teaching strategy adopted in the Project Management (PM) stream, offered as part of Infrastructure Logistic courses. The teaching strategy is based on a combination of constructivism theory of learning, problem and project based learning, and active learning. The strategy requires systematic reflection and conscious creation of documented evidence of PM attributes and competences in the form of a portfolio.

Preliminary results of action research monitoring the effectiveness of systematic reflection indicate that students respond very positively to the idea of professional journals and professional portfolios. Preliminary results also indicate that students accept reflection and conscious documentation of their achievements as an integral part of their study and future practice.

Building a symbiotic relationship between academia and industry: expectations and observations of construction management graduates

Construction management graduates are employed in job functions such as building and civil engineering contracting, construction and project management consulting, client organisations (public and private) and developer organisations. Considering the diversity of employment opportunities for construction management graduates, they increasingly need to have a portfolio of skills to work effectively and efficiently with other professions in the industry. In exploring this, the objective of the research presented in this paper is to determine if construction management graduates are meeting the expectations of their employers. In considering the competitive forces impacting the construction industry, the authors of this paper sought to establish whether construction managers are able to identify those key skills needed for the future success of the industry. In turn, this information is considered critical for the successful formulation of curricula. Therefore, to establish whether construction management graduates are meeting the expectations of contractors, a survey was distributed to managers to establish their expectations and observations of recent graduates. The survey results indicate that managers are generally satisfied with the skill level of graduate students. The survey also highlighted several important skills that were considered to be lacking in graduates. cknowledging that there is always a need to improve the skill level of graduates, the authors propose a number of recommendations that are considered to improve the content construction management curricula.