A Skills Measurement Framework for the Construction Industry: A Case of Lusaka Province (original) (raw)

Construction is characterised as being labour intensive and thus the continuous skills development will always be a matter of concern. The cyclic nature of the construction industry gives rise to skills mismatches which cause fluctuations in skills demand and supply. Investigating labour market conditions to assess skills demand and supply cycle of labour is a difficult task because of the scarcity or unavailability of aggregated local labour market information on the construction industry. This study investigated the issue of skills mismatches and developed a skills measurement framework to address it. The research design employed a mixed method approach to include both quantitative and qualitative data. A total of 162 firms consisting of 59 contractors, 80 consultants, 23 higher education institutions and 10 government institutions and local authorities in Lusaka Province whose core of business was inclined towards construction and development of transportation infrastructure were...