Analysis of the benefits and costs of construction craft training in the United States based on expert perceptions and industry data

Yinggang Wang, Paul Goodrum, Carl Haas, Robert Glover and Sharam Vazari

Construction Management and Economics, 2010, vol. 28, issue 12, 1269-1285

Abstract: The case for or against craft training in construction from the perspective of constructors, owners, governments, workers, and other stakeholders is not completely clear, despite several studies to date. The business case for investing in construction craft training is examined from the employer's perspective on a construction project. A survey of 93 training directors and construction managers from throughout the US construction industry was used to collect quantitative estimates regarding craft training benefits and learning rates. Using these data, a benefit to cost ratio was calculated for a hypothetical typical industrial project (the CII model plant). According to the analyses, the estimated benefit to cost ratios range from 1.5:1 to 3.0:1. While these ratios are based on expert opinion, the results were triangulated with actual data from company training and project performance records as well as results from other research studies. The estimated benefit to cost ratios on the study's hypothetical industrial project are sensitive to the craft workers' employment duration, assuming that the training is provided by a single employer. Training durations are likely to be longer under a 'community training' model in which firms collaborate to sponsor training and workers have greater opportunities to continue in their training programme as they move from firm to firm. Nevertheless, the results contribute to a growing body of evidence that an investment in craft training is economically attractive for an employer, even over a typical project life cycle.

Keywords: Workforce; labour; training (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01446193.2010.524238 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:28:y:2010:i:12:p:1269-1285

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RCME20

DOI: 10.1080/01446193.2010.524238

Access Statistics for this article

Construction Management and Economics is currently edited by Will Hughes

More articles in Construction Management and Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().