Triggers of Delays in International Projects Using Engineering Procurement and Construction Delivery Methods in the Belt and Road Initiative: Case Study of a High-Speed Railway Projects

Since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been put in practice by the Chinese government, several High-Speed Railways (HSR) have been built by Chinese Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) firms. However, many delays have created severe detrimental consequences on the progress of most HSR projects. This study sought to explore the essence of the recurring triggers of delays in international EPC HSR projects under the BRI, and a structured questionnaire survey approach was applied to compile the first-hand dataset from Chinese EPC firms working for BRI infrastructure projects. The data were evaluated, and the Relative Importance Index (RII) was adopted to assess the magnitude of the important delay triggers. The findings suggest that HSR projects are still susceptible to unavoidable delays in global construction infrastructure projects. In the engineering phase, improper management of the design, unsustainable land acquisition, and insufficient use of EPC joint venture are the salient trigger of delays. In the procurement phase, the leading causes of unsuitable procurement, undervalued procurement cost, inefficient logistics in labor and materials, improper planning, unqualified site supervisors, inefficient technical standard management, and inefficient constant payment terms are likely to trigger delays in the construction phase HSR projects. Five critical groups of delay factors are identified by this study, which has an essential primary contribution to the body of knowledge and is helpful to EPC contractors working for HSR projects under BRI.

Investigating communicative barriers on construction industry productivity in Malaysia: An overview

<span lang="EN-US">The evolution of technology has changed the way how human communicate in the current time. With the advancement of technology, instructions and messages could be delivered in a split second. Even though life is made easy with technology, some information and details should be delivered face-to-face in order to avoid communication breakdown. This study was carried out to determine the language needs by foreign workers working at construction sectors in Malaysia. The study created an overview on how communication affects productivity in completing tasks on time. The results from this study lead to a development of language modules for foreign workers training. An online survey was carried out through social media on construction site supervisors around Malaysia in getting their feedback related to the origin of their co-workers and the importance of English language as medium of instruction for task fulfilment. Results indicated that language barriers had affected productivity in the sector of construction in Malaysia. Besides, results also noted that cross-cultural differences had put foreign workers at risk and caused wastage to time and manpower.</span>

The Validity and Reliability of Counseling Internship Supervision Training Module among Academic Supervisors and Site Supervisors

This study aims to develop theCounseling Internship Supervision Training Module that can benefit the academic supervisors at public universities. This training module is one of the efforts in increasing academic supervisors’ efficacy in the theoretical and skill aspects in counseling supervision. This module is developed based on a systematic supervision model namely theSystem Approach to Supervision (SAS) by Holloway (1995). This module contains 5 stages of supervision and they comprise of 16 activities. Session 1: Introduction, Session 2: Pre-supervision Skills, Session 3: Supervision Process, Session 4: Supervision Evaluationand Session 5: Post-Supervision Skills and Actions. This study is carried out to test the validity and reliability of theCounseling Internship Supervision Training Module. A total of 10 assessors for the module validity comprises of academic supervisors at the public universities such as UPSI, UM, UPM and UKM who are also lecturers in the counseling field. Meanwhile to measure the module’s reliability, a total of 30 school counselors inBatang Padang were involved as the respondents of the study. The finding with regard to the module’s validity shows that the minimum percentage value is 82 percent for the statement “The module content can be implemented following the steps determined”and the statement “the module content can increase the supervisor’s character more effectively”. The maximum percentage is 87 percent for the statement “this module content can fulfill the target population”. Meanwhile, for the reliability coefficient finding, the alphaCronbachCounseling Internship Supervision Training Module on the 30 school counselors in the district ofBatang Padang is high, which is 0.984. This study implication shows that this module can serve as the teaching module to supervisors to train them to become effective supervisors.

Exploring the Program-Site Alliance: Building Partnerships Between Counseling Programs and Fieldwork Sites

Practicum and internship experiences are critical in students’ professional development in counselor education programs, and the dynamics that occur between programs and field sites can impact these experiences. A program-site alliance is a measure of how well these entities work together. Using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, the authors interviewed five site supervisors and found five themes (Site Supervisor Role, Communication Within the Program-Site Alliance, Independent Mutualism, Regulated Support, and Inconsistency Between Program-Site Alliance) capturing the essence of the program-site relationship. The authors explore implications for practice and future research.

Supervision Experiences of School Counselors-in-Training: An Interpretative Phenomenological Study

School counselors-in-training receive university and site supervision during their field experiences. University supervision may be provided by a faculty member or doctoral student who lacks school counseling experience. School counselors as site supervisors may not be trained to supervise. Further, the multiple systems may have differing expectations for supervisees. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to explore the lived experiences of eight master’s level school counselors-in-training with supervision. The four super-ordinate themes included: impact of counselor education program, supervisor characteristics, significance of feedback, and characteristics of the supervisee. Findings suggested programmatic changes counselor educators can make to strengthen student preparation.

Factors Influencing Intern Performance and Employability in Sport Management: A Voice from Internship Site Supervisors

Recent literature refers to internships as one of the most impactful aspects of an academic degree program and a catalyst for developing necessary employability skills (Narayanan, Olk, & Fukami, 2010; Shoenfelt, Stone, & Kottke, 2013). The purpose of this study was to utilize internship site supervisor evaluations to assess interns’ skills, knowledge, and ability as a means of gaining a greater understanding of employability in the sport industry. A total of 420 usable, final supervisor evaluations were gathered from the academic years 2012-2013 through 2018-2019. Interns’ quality of work ( = .49, p < .001) was the most important predictor in explaining their performance as an intern, followed by their attitude ( = .20, p < .001), dependability ( = .12, p = .002), quality of oral communication ( = .10, p < .001) and maturity ( = .07, p = .015). Similarly, interns’ quality of work ( = .37, p < .001) was the most important predictor for their employability, followed by attitude ( = .24, p < .001), quality of oral communication ( = .15, p < .001) and quality of writing ( = .09, p = .020). Students, higher education institutions and industry practitioners are in a constant flux between what is offered within the sport management curriculum and what is required by the sport industry (Emery et al., 2012). Other scholars (e.g., de Schepper et al., 2020) also found this as a challenging balance between developing well-rounded graduates and providing appropriate sport management job opportunities.

Reflection and Readiness: Shared Benefits of Using an Oral Final Evaluation to Assess Counselor Competency

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted educational systems worldwide, shifting everything from pedagogy to learning environments. The emerging needs and complexities presented during this time has challenged long-standing practices, requiring creativity and innovation to adapt in the midst of uncertainty and accelerated change. This has been the reality within graduate counselling programs where coursework and internships were interrupted, and the counselling environment altered. In the face of such changes, the critical assessment and evaluation of pre-service counsellor competence remains a high priority of counsellor educators. This article outlines the practice of adopting an Oral Final Evaluation (OFE) of post-practicum graduate counselling students as a means of addressing the need to accurately assess counsellor competence in the changed landscape of the current pandemic. This article provides a rationale for integrating an OFE and space for reflection on its implementation, along with feedback from participating students, faculty, and site-supervisors.

Supervisor's capability and aptitude to supervise Health and Safety (H&S) induction training to site workforces: A case study of the construction industry of Pakistan

Health and Safety (H&S) is a professional approach to substitute harmless and vigorous work conditions for any industry. The construction industry is of utmost importance because it is associated with elevated accident rates compared to the other sectors. To some extent, cultural progression is also reliant on communication among all the groups inside a corporation. Effective communication happens in a construction corporation, among upper management and the employees arbitrated by the supervisors. Therefore, if the construction supervisor's capabilities are ignored, the plans to progress the satisfactory H&S culture may be unsuccessful. The aptitude for conducting H&S induction training to employees is one of the construction supervisor's abilities, and in developing countries, the supervisor's capabilities are ignored. Moreover, the organization's eagerness on H&S, which corresponds to the induction training, is relatively less. The current research reports an examination to analyze how the supervisors possess H&S capabilities and skills to oversee site H&S induction training to workforces successfully. For the analysis, Pakistan's construction industry was targeted, and numerous construction firms were contacted in this regard. The data for the intended objective was accumulated through talks and surveys with site supervisors in construction companies of various extents from all over Pakistan. The outcomes exposed insufficient training, an absence of management dedication, and an inadequate familiarity or usage of visual/audio communication assistance by construction companies in Pakistan. Thus, it is suggested that there is a need for the supervisors to understand the use of multilingual skills and current technologies to assist valuable site H&S induction training that can progress a path towards an optimistic H&S culture.

Occupational Health and Safety Practices in Cape Coast Metropolis

The rate of construction accidents in the Ghanaian construction industry is not encouraging. The study sought to identify the factors affecting the effective health and safety practices in the construction industry within the Cape Coast Metropolis. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the construction firms and ‘Yamane formula’ to arrive at the number of respondents (44) for the study. Structured questionnaires were distributed among site engineers, site supervisors, safety officers, quantity surveyors, foremen, chief masons and chief carpenters. Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for the data analysis and results were presented in a form of descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings show that the level of health and safety practices within the Metropolis was high and the factors that affected the implementation of health and safety programmes were severe among the firms. Few of the company’s health and safety programmes were effective and this calls for the strengthenig of the construction sector policy by the ministries responsible for implementation.