Survey data set on work-life conflict of women in the construction industry

Work-life conflict can have a detrimental effect on family life,particularly for women who have to work in order to support their families financially.The data set presents the views of 50 female construction professionals in Lagos,Nigeria through a purposive sampling technique with the aid of questionnaire.Categorical Regression was used to assess the effect of work pressure on family expectations. The features of the respondents in terms of profession, years of experience, office location and house hold characteristics were presented in bar chart. Analysis of the data can provide information on the work experiences of women in the construction industry particularly work load,hours worked per day,work on weekends and work on holidays. The data can also provide insights on the family expectations that are significantly affected by work pressure

SKILLS SET DETERMINANTS OF IND-CADETS WORKFORCE IN HIGHTECH CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES IN LAGOS NIGERIA

It is common practice in High Technology Construction Companies in Nigeria to seek out the best practice procedures for their organizational abilities and competencies. As a result, they hire fresh graduates on a yearly basis in order to fill the dynamic vacuum that technology opens from time to time. The Universities are the training fields for these young minds and on a regular basis update their curriculum towards competing in the ever changing global market of opportunities and competition. Work and employability are often mixed use concepts because training is different from being employable. This paper investigated the characteristics of the Ind-CADETS (Industry Cadets) workforce of students of construction related disciplines of Covenant University and some selected high technology construction companies in Lagos Nigeria. This was done to get feedback from these construction companies on the types of skill set they require from fresh graduates from the universities towards making the graduates better suited for their work experiences after graduation. This was done by administering a well-structured questionnaire and interviews for proper conclusion on the subject matter from a cross section of students from final year in Architecture, Building, and Estate Management of the 2016-2017 academic year and also from some selected high technology construction companies in Lagos. The data collected was statistically analysed with SPSS software and it showed that there was a gap in communication between the construction companies and the Universities on the types of skills set required for making the graduates fit effectively into the working environment. Software incompatibility and personality traits were seen as hindrances towards achieving this synergy. It was further discovered that University curriculum were missing the goal of achieving basic educational foundations for industry compatibility and employability

ENHANCED STUDENTS LEARNING AND THE NEW GRADUATES EXPERIENCE: A CASE IN ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT, COVENANT UNIVERSITY

All year round in the world, admissions into higher institutions of learning are carried out with most students finding themselves in various disciplines including Architecture. Once on these career paths, students have different learning abilities one differing from the other. Learning enhancement refers to skills acquisition to improving understanding especially in the value and effective use of knowledge acquired. This is normally done through taught courses from departmental faculty members with the aim of enriching the undergraduate for maximum knowledge enhancement. As a result, this research will try and identify the modern and dynamic learning techniques available for knowledge dissemination to undergraduate classes of Architecture at Covenant University. Quantitative research methods was adopted where questionnaires were administered to the fresh classes of the Department of Architecture. This paper aims to enhance learning skills at the undergraduate level and the application towards effective teaching delivery by faculty in Architecture schools. The following questions are to be answered: What are the relevant skills required of undergraduate students in the department of architecture?, What current enhanced learning techniques are used in teaching the students in the fresh classes of Architecture at Covenant University? and In what ways can innovative teaching methods and skills of knowledge transfer be used to enhance effective learning at the undergraduate level? Contributions to knowledge are that new methods of enhanced learning techniques are to be recommended from the study, and also new methods of knowledge transfer will be proffered. Secondly, enhanced learning methods and skills need to be introduced into the curriculum towards effectively equipping the new intake better prepared for the course of study

Pathways to Architectural Education and Practice Success in Nigeria

Architectural practice and education has always been seen by architects and students of the discipline as a tough and demanding terrain. This may be connected to the obvious demands of the training of architects, characterized by long hours of design, drafting, and modelling. This does not end at the schools of architecture but continues through the practice journey. However, some veterans of the profession argue that this is the sure pathway towards success in architecture. This paper aims at providing pathways towards the preservation and sustenance of the relevance of the profession and architectural practice in Nigeria. The paper adopts a qualitative research approach while presenting findings from in-depth interviews of sixteen leading principals of architectural firms drawn from Lagos, Abuja, Benin-city, Enugu and Port Harcourt. The study explores the challenges of the practice environment, the shortcomings of the products from the schools; practice demands and the pathways to being a desirable graduate and architect in practice. The paper concludes with the recommendations that certain areas of study of architecture such as detailing, understanding of planning laws, regulations and entrepreneurship studies in architecture should be given intensified attention in the training institutions. The need for architects to reach out socially through all available media within the ambits of the law to promote commissions while being actively involved in the activities of their professional bodies was found to be a crucial path to practice success. Finally, partnerships and collaborations between architects and firms is assuredly a path towards promoting stronger, healthier and enduring architectural businesses

Pedagogic Tenets of Specification Writing in Architectural Education, Construction and Practice

Specification writing is an important aspect of architectural curriculum; as failure of the architect to write an effective specification in educational training and construction-practice may lead to unpalatable factors. This study explored couple of methods employed in the teaching, learning and assessment of specification writing students in architecture department, Covenant University, South-West Nigeria, with a view to identifying the most effective method within the group dynamics. The methodology adopted for this study involved the interview of M.Sc. II architecture students and adoption of two (2) basic pedagogic methods namely Traditional and Revolutionary during class sessions. The qualities were evaluated and assessed through the outcome of students' assignments, standard performance tests and examinations results, and documentations in brainstorming-interactive class sessions. It was found that there were significant differences between the performance scores of students using diverse pedagogic methods. It recommended that further research capable of bridging education and construction- practice in synergy

Designing to meet Human Needs: Place of Environment-Behaviour Studies in Architectural Education

The role of architecture is to create spaces that meet the needs of users. Architecture of buildings is influenced by many factors such as behavioural, socio-cultural and physical which affect the design, meaning and use of space to different individuals and group of people. In view of this, some courses that deal with man-environment behaviour studies were incorporated into the curriculum of architecture schools, but it has been observed that the guiding principles of the curriculum formulation and implementation of these courses are yet to establish institutional ideology; to enforce the context relevance, and implementation in the instructional plans so that architects under tutelage can create environments that will respond to the need of users. Using secondary data from literature and curricula of four architectural schools in South-west Nigeria, this paper examines how adequately students are sensitize on the relationship between man and environment as an important way of meeting his needs. It was discovered that aspects of Environment-Behaviour studies were rarely incorporated into the curricula of the schools investigated. This paper recommended that curriculum review be done parametrically in favour of EBR pedagogic dynamics

Professional Training of Real Estate Students: A Study of Academic Curricula of Three Universities in Nigeria

The future of any profession is dependent on the students being trained to become members of the profession. Professional education is therefore often dictated by the educational curriculum of institutions. The Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) therefore stipulates the courses that must be taught in programmes based on specifications of professional bodies. Practitioners however often question the adequacy of this education. The adequacy of professional education of real estate students in the curricula of three Universities in South-West Nigeria is assessed using the standards set by Nigerian Universities Commission and the Nigerian Institute of Estate Valuers and Surveyors (NIESV). The results revealed aspects of professional education that are not yet addressed in the curricula of real estate students in the Universities investigated. A review of the curricula is recommended