Challenges of attracting construction workers to skill development and training programmes

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that discourage construction workers from undergoing skill development training, and to suggest steps for making the training programmes more attractive to them.

Design/methodology/approach

The research used an exploratory approach of unstructured interviews with construction workers (bottom-up approach), and the guided group brainstorming technique with the help of experienced industry professionals (top-down approach).

Findings

From the unstructured interviews, five inhibiting factors were identified which discourage construction workers from undergoing training. Furthermore, to recognise the causes of the inhibiting factors, 13 possible causal attributes (PCAs) were identified from the brainstorming approach. Subsequently, these PCAs were classified into five possible causal factors (PCFs) on the basis of those concerned stakeholder(s) that are most closely involved and most responsible for fixing them.

Research limitations/implications

The research provides recommendations to practitioners for pragmatic and permanent resolution of each of the PCFs, which serves as a framework for the construction industry to reduce the scarcity of trained workers in the industry. Also, the results may serve as a model for the planning and successful implementation of any new skill-training programme for the construction workers in any developing economy, such as India.

Originality/value

This research contributes to the literature by highlighting the views of construction workers on the training establishments, which very few studies have considered in the past. Also, the research provides a detailed process of brainstorming approach, which will help the research community to appreciate its use in studies related to the construction industry.