Up-skilling the New Zealand construction industry: a critique of the learning options
Panko, Mary; Davies, Kathryn; Harfield, T.; Kenley, Russell
Date
2008Citation:
Harfield, T., Kenley, R., Panko, M., and Davies, K. (2008). Up-skilling the New Zealand construction industry: A critique of the learning options. In Haigh, R., and Amaratunga, D. (Eds). Proceedings of CIB W89: International Conference in Building Education and Research BEAR2008 'Building resilience' conference. Salford, UK: University of Salford. CD Rom : 434-445.Permanent link to Research Bank record:
https://hdl.handle.net/10652/2259Abstract
Education for the building and construction industry in New Zealand is facing a considerable
shift in scale because of the requirement for builder licensing by 2010. The Department of
Building and Housing has authorised five educational options for the industry up-skilling
programme: self-directed learning, reading materials provided by the Registrar, receiving formal
instruction, attending an information session, or any other activity considered by the Registrar to
be relevant. This paper questions the efficacy of two of these options based on research that was
undertaken in 2005 to identify the preferred learning styles of those in the construction industry.
We conclude that the options ‘self-directed learning’ and ‘reading materials provided by the
Registrar’ will not provide pathways to educational qualifications, but may be barriers to the
success of the up-skilling project.