Graduate Employment: Introducing Construction Management Graduates to the Workplace in South Africa

Author(s):  
Mafa Maraqana ◽  
John Smallwood
2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Jesús Esteban Gabriela ◽  
Iván Martín Pérez

Sudáfrica se enfrenta en la actualidad a nuevos retos en el sector de la construcción. Por un lado, la necesidad de un nuevo modelo de sector energético que ayude al crecimiento sostenible del país así como a su modernización, y por otro lado la necesidad urgente de mejorar las altas cifras de siniestralidad que el sector de la construcción sigue teniendo a fecha de hoy. Para ello, en febrero del año pasado, 2014, el Ministerio de Trabajo sudafricano publicó un nuevo texto legal – Construction Regulations 2014 -, modificando al que ya existía en vigor– Construction Regulations 2003, regulando las nuevas obligaciones en materia de seguridad y salud de todos los intervinientes haciendo especial hincapié en la figura del Promotor (“client”) como eje vertebrador de la promoción de la seguridad y salud en las obras de construcción. La aparición de la designación obligatoria de nuevos profesionales en materia de seguridad y salud tanto para el promotor como para las empresas participantes (“principal contractor” y “contractor) dotan a la actual organización preventiva de obra de una mayor estructuración y claridad a la hora de acometer la implantación de los principios básicos de la gestión preventiva a través del seguimiento de los trabajos por parte de dichos profesionales basándose en documentos de gestión preventiva establecidos de igual forma (“risk assessment”, “health and safety specification”, “fall protection plan” y el “health and safety file”). El registro de dichos profesionales ante la SACPCMP - “South African Council for Project and Construction Management Professions”, obligatorio a partir del 6 de agosto de 2015, dotará de una mayor profesionalización de los técnicos que desempeñen dichas funciones; cuestión fundamental para seguir trabajando en la mejora de los índices de siniestralidad del sector de la construcción en Sudáfrica. Abstract South Africa is currently facing new challenges in the construction sector. On the one hand, the need for a new model of energy sector to assist the sustainable growth of the country and its modernization, and secondly the urgent need to improve the high number of accidents rates that the construction sector still keeps to date. On last February, 2014, the Ministry of Labor released a new construction regulations – construction regulations 2014 – modifying to Construction Regulations 2003, regulating the new duties and obligations on health and safety belong to all agents involved with special emphasis on the role of “Client” as the backbone of promoting the health and safety matters on construction sites. The emergence of new mandatory professionals appointments on health and safety both for client and principal contractor – contractor, endow to current safety organizational chart on site with a better structure and clarity to undertake the implementation of the basic principles of preventive safety management through monitoring by these professionals based in all new safety documents established likewise ("risk assessment", "health and safety specification", "fall protection plan "and" health and safety file "). The register of these new safety roles through SACPCMP - “South African Council for Project and Construction Management Professions”, will come into in force on 6th august, 2015. This register will provide better professionalism of technicians who perform those duties, essential point to keep improving the accidents – incidents rates on construction sector in South Africa.


2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
'Maboreng Maharasoa ◽  
Driekie Hay

Author(s):  
Fidelis Emuze ◽  
John Smallwood

This study advocates the integration of sustainability into undergraduate construction management programs in South Africa. Sustainability with the color ‘Green’ is presently reshaping the built environment and construction professionals are challenged to implement ‘Green Building’, ‘Green Construction’, and ‘Green Infrastructure’ within the context of a ‘Green Economy’. Likewise, academia is faced with the expected challenge of adding these trends and topics to existing curricula so as to produce graduates that will address these trends. A review of existing construction management programs in South Africa shows a major gap that must be closed in order to evolve a standardized ‘Green’ curriculum that will enable students to integrate knowledge gained into future jobs. To close the gaps, the current trend among schools affiliated with the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) has been used to recommend curriculum renewal that would provide the industry with benefits of sustainability in the built environment.


Author(s):  
Laura F. Pinfold

The transformation of higher education in South Africa has seen higher education institutions become more responsive to community matters by providing institutional support for service-learning projects. Despite service-learning being practised in many departments at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), there is a significant difference in the way service-learning is perceived by academics and the way in which it should be supported within the curriculum. This article reflects on a collaborative transdisciplinary service-learning project at CPUT that included the Department of Construction Management and Quantity Surveying and the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. The aim of the transdisciplinary service-learning project was for students to participate in an asset-mapping exercise in a rural communal settlement in the Bergrivier municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa. In so doing students from the two departments were gradually inducted into the community. Once inducted, students were able to identify the community’s most urgent needs. During community engagement students from each department were paired together. This allowed transdisciplinary learning to happen with the exploration of ideas from the perspectives of both engineering and urban planning students. Students were able to construct meaning beyond their discipline. Cooperation and synergy between the departments allowed mutual, interchangeable, cooperative interaction with community members. Outcomes for the transdisciplinary service-learning project and the required commitment from students are discussed.


1972 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
J. Hers

In South Africa the modern outlook towards time may be said to have started in 1948. Both the two major observatories, The Royal Observatory in Cape Town and the Union Observatory (now known as the Republic Observatory) in Johannesburg had, of course, been involved in the astronomical determination of time almost from their inception, and the Johannesburg Observatory has been responsible for the official time of South Africa since 1908. However the pendulum clocks then in use could not be relied on to provide an accuracy better than about 1/10 second, which was of the same order as that of the astronomical observations. It is doubtful if much use was made of even this limited accuracy outside the two observatories, and although there may – occasionally have been a demand for more accurate time, it was certainly not voiced.


Author(s):  
Alex Johnson ◽  
Amanda Hitchins

Abstract This article summarizes a series of trips sponsored by People to People, a professional exchange program. The trips described in this report were led by the first author of this article and include trips to South Africa, Russia, Vietnam and Cambodia, and Israel. Each of these trips included delegations of 25 to 50 speech-language pathologists and audiologists who participated in professional visits to learn of the health, education, and social conditions in each country. Additionally, opportunities to meet with communication disorders professionals, students, and persons with speech, language, or hearing disabilities were included. People to People, partnered with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), provides a meaningful and interesting way to learn and travel with colleagues.


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