Date Available
12-14-2011
Year of Publication
2008
Document Type
Dissertation
College
Engineering
Department
Civil Engineering
First Advisor
Paul M. Goodrum
Abstract
The shortage of skilled workers is one of the greatest challenges facing the construction industry. The Construction Users Roundtable (CURT) surveyed facility owners on their workforce availability in the summer of 2001 and found that 82 percent of the respondents reported experiencing work force shortages on their projects, and 78 percent indicated that the trend had worsened over the previous three years. One promising solution to relieve the shortage of skilled workers is to provide adequate and effective training. Many research efforts on construction worker training have been conducted in the past decade in order to address the need and benefits of construction craft training. However, a quantitative analysis of construction craft trainings benefits and costs from the perspective of worker, project and company has rarely been carried out. Providing quantifiable analysis regarding the benefits and costs of training can help to solve the debate existing in the industry regarding the value of craft labor training and improve the effectiveness of craft training programs. The research investigated existing major datasets relevant with construction craft training developed by previous research. Meanwhile, as part of this research, a craft director training survey was administrated to measure training benefits in productivity, turnover, absenteeism safety and rework, as well as information such as core training subjects and common barriers for training. The primary objective of the study is to qualify the outcomes and effectiveness of strategies for construction craft training. Four secondary objectives are completed to help achieve the primary goal: (I) Identify the major characteristics of construction training and major factors affecting construction training; (II) Quantitatively measure the outcomes of construction training on the individual and project/company level; (III) Develop benefit-cost ratio models based on the survey administrated by the study as well as existing industry data; and (IV) Perform a skill affinity analysis to identify real multiskilling patterns among craft workers in order to adopt multiskilling training strategies in the construction industry.
Recommended Citation
Wang, Yinggang, "A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF TRAINING OUTCOMES AND STRATEGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY" (2008). University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations. 600.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/gradschool_diss/600
