This project with the title, “Competence Development of Future Leaders in the Construction Industry”, marks the end of the MSc in Construction Management at Aalborg University. The report was made to fill the curriculum requirements and is filed by the Technology and Natural Science faculties as docu-mentation for the requirements to pass the MSc in Construction Management Master's program.
The report deals with upcoming and recent leader's level of competence and the experience of the transition from student to newly qualified leader in the construction industry. Through the report there will be analysis on the skills the students learn in their education, and afterwards the project group examines the competencies that the construction industry demands. The competencies the construction industry demand is being compared to current educational focus, to examine the competence areas where there is room and need for improvements.
The report starts with an analysis, to clarify where the project group see improvements can be made. It follows up by interviewing key people from the construction industry, lecturers from the educational institutions and students. It forms the basis of the exploratory case study in the report, where the five continuous competences are illuminated:
• Management
• Social capital
• Communication and Negotiation techniques
• Conflict management
• Motivation
The five areas of competence mentioned above, provide the basis for a number of hypotheses which will be confirmed or denied through a round of interviews. Afterwards a questionnaire is made with two groups of respondents so responses can be compared. The respondents groups are comprised of leaders in the Danish construction industry, as well as engineers and building construction students at Aalborg University and University College Nordjylland; a total of 44 respondents. The analysis of the questionnaire is highlighted in the chapter “Empirical Data Processing”. Furthermore, the project group explores the theories, methods and tools that will support and develop the skills of the future leaders in the construction industry.
Through the interviews and questionnaires the respondent’s give the impression that the construction professionals require a larger and more complete focus on human management skills. In addition the students feel that they are not prepared to handle the social and human aspects that are required as a leader. The educational institutions educate skilled technical strong leaders, where the majority of the teaching focuses on the technical and more measurable disciplines. Through the five competences, the report gives an overview and insight into the possible areas which future leaders can be developed in. The project group's solution addresses the people who are involved in the Danish construction industry who have an interest in teaching and developing the best leader’s in the long term. Therefore, the pro-posed solution is a combination of guidance and ideas for optimization of the new leader’s competences.