The shortage of skilled workers is one of the greatest challenges facing the construction industry. The Construction Users Roundtable (CURT) surveyed facility owners on their workforce availability in the summer of 2001 and found that 82 percent of the respondents reported experiencing work force shortages on their projects, and 78 percent indicated that the trend had worsened over the previous three years. One promising solution to relieve the shortage of skilled workers is to provide adequate and effective training. Many research efforts on construction worker training have been conducted in the past decade in order to address the need and benefits of construction craft training. However, a quantitative analysis of construction craft trainings benefits and costs from the perspective of worker, project and company has rarely been carried out. Providing quantifiable analysis regarding the benefits and costs of training can help to solve the debate existing in the industry regarding the value of craft labor training and improve the effectiveness of craft training programs. The research investigated existing major datasets relevant with construction craft training developed by previous research. Meanwhile, as part of this research, a craft director training survey was administrated to measure training benefits in productivity, turnover, absenteeism safety and rework, as well as information such as core training subjects and common barriers for training. The primary objective of the study is to qualify the outcomes and effectiveness of strategies for construction craft training. Four secondary objectives are completed to help achieve the primary goal: (I) Identify the major characteristics of construction training and major factors affecting construction training; (II) Quantitatively measure the outcomes of construction training on the individual and project/company level; (III) Develop benefit-cost ratio models based on the survey administrated by the study as well as existing industry data; and (IV) Perform a skill affinity analysis to identify real multiskilling patterns among craft workers in order to adopt multiskilling training strategies in the construction industry.

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In the literature, much has been reported about skill shortages in the labor market and many solutions have been suggested but most of them do not appear to work well for developing countries. This study investigated the place of portable technical skills as an option for addressing skill shortages, particularly in developing countries. The objective of the study was to determine whether different occupations have portable technical skills, which graduates of workforce development programs can carry with them as they transfer from one occupation to another. Although in the literature the importance of portable skills has been recognized, research has tended to focus on the portability of soft skills such as communication and problem-solving. This study is unique in that in addition to soft skills, it explores the existence and usefulness of portable technical skills such as maintenance of equipment and use of hand tools. The study methodology comprised analysis of documents followed by focus group discussions with instructors and employers. The researcher examined competency lists drawn from three different occupational clusters, taking three occupations in each cluster. Analysis of correlation between pairs of occupations in each cluster revealed the existence of portable technical skills within occupational clusters. For example, within the Mechanical Engineering cluster, there were 504 technical skills that Fitting and Machining had in common. Furthermore, the study discovered 152 technical skills that were portable across all the occupations in the sample. According to an instructors' focus group, one of the pedagogical implications of the findings of this study was that training institutions could promote inter-disciplinary collaboration through joint preparation of syllabi and team-teaching. An employers' focus group confirmed that portable technical skills have long been used effectively and efficiently in the Informal Micro-Enterprise sector and training providers should, therefore, promote the teaching of portable technical skills with special emphases on entrepreneurship development to make students more flexible in their career development. In addition to policy recommendations for the promotion of portable technical skills, the study recommends that further studies should be done to determine the full extent of portable technical skills across a wider range of occupations. / Ph. D.

Service delivery to children with severe disabilities (CSDs) in developing countries share some common characteristics. These include inaccessible services due to the fact that the majority of services are located in a few large cities, the focus of services are usually on school-age children (with few for pre-schoolers), many services require specialised staff and high technology equipment that is not always available and professionals who tend to work in isolation with minimal integration between services. A particularly vulnerable group within the sphere of CSDs are beginning communicators because of their inability to articulate their needs, feelings and rights. Programmes to specifically address these communication needs by equipping them with the necessary skills to interact and participate in society, are very limited. Often the first contact that primary caregivers of a CSD have with professionals, is with the community health nurse. Furthermore, they often remain the only professionals who provide continuous support and assistance to these caregivers. It is therefore clear that these nurses need to be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills in order to assist caregivers in dealing with their children with severe disabilities. This can be done by training these nurses (through multiskilling) to function as transdisciplinary professionals. Furthermore, a need for appropriate materials for service delivery to this population also exists. Consequently the BCIP (Beginning Communication Intervention Protocol) was developed. The BCIP addresses four important communication domains, namely communication means (including objects, photographs, manual signs, PCS symbols and a simplified 4-option digital speaker), functions (namely informational functions e.g. requesting more, requesting help, etc. and social functions, e.g. greeting, drawing attention to self, etc.), partners (both adults and peers) and the deliberate creation of communication opportunities (e.g. by providing small portions, placing desired items out of research) etc. Care was taken to ensure culture sensitivity and the authenticity of the BCIP. Twenty community health nurses were trained in the application of the BCIP. Training employed adult learning principles and was one week long, followed by three follow-ups that were conducted in situ (at two weeks, six weeks and five months post-training). Multiple measurements were used to evaluate the knowledge and skills acquired after training, namely questionnaires, structured interviews, skill demonstrations (which were video recorded and rated by the researcher and an independent rater) and a focus group. Results indicated that the BCIP training is relevant in bringing about a significant change in the targeted domains, namely knowledge and skills. Peripheral behaviours (namely attitudes, job satisfaction and type of service delivery provided) were all rated high at the onset of the research and thus quantitative data failed to show improvement. On the other hand, qualitative data from the focus group suggested improvement. / Dissertation (PhD (Augmentative and Alternative Communication))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / unrestricted