Training in Collaboration Should Start in College
Date Posted: June 28, 2016
Posted In: Ideas, Workforce,
From Engineering News-Record: In an industry that is evolving at an exponential rate and growing increasingly complex and interrelated, the lines between architecture and construction are rapidly blurring.
Consider design-build, design-assist, integrated project delivery, building information modeling, lean construction techniques and field technology: All are crying out for increased collaboration across the fields of architecture, engineering and construction.
In the construction industry, there are no longer any rigid lines between these equally important fields of expertise.
And while the architecture, engineering and construction-management college curricula have evolved in the past decade to embed collaboration more deeply as a “skill,” these programs need to be accelerated to keep pace with this monumental shift in practice.
To paint with broad strokes, the majority of college graduates are not adequately prepared to enter their chosen professions.
Collaboration is a major priority for the American Institute of Architects–Associated General Contractors joint committee. And we feel strongly enough about this issue to make a clarion call to the academic community and all members of the design and construction industry to focus on the three simple, yet unmistakably important, attributes for our collective and intertwined futures: empathy, trust and collaboration.
We have too much to gain by building upon this solid foundation and too much to lose by failing to do so.