Debunking Limitations Hindering Continuing Professional Development Imperatives in South African Construction Industry

Abstract

Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is a universally accepted mechanism that bridges the gap between formal higher education knowledge transfer and work-place competencies. CPD reinforces existing knowledge and facilitates acquisition of new skills, and intricate competencies required for innovation. The study investigates the challenging factors South African Construction Industry (SACI) practitioners encounter which limits participation in CPD rated events and formal trainings. The study significantly contributes to the identification of the barriers to the subject matter and the recommendations that emerged may be explored by SACI practitioners towards becoming globally competitive. The research involved extensive review of existing literature to identify CPD participation challenges, and construction industry practitioner’s competency challenges. It further analyzed secondary data obtained from industry actors as means of benchmarking industry expectations for SACI. The research identified financial cost of CPD, workload of personnel, and lack of suitable CPD activities as prevalent challenging factors in SACI. The study recommends that organizations need to support staff by financing CPD training costs, and consciously creating work-recess for staff to attend CPD trainings.