Newly graduated students’ role as ambassadors for digitalisation in construction firms

Abstract

This study furthers the understanding of newly graduated students’ role in construction firms’ efforts to better use digital technologies. The aim is to increase the understanding of the role that newly graduated students play in digital transformation in construction firms. The study is based on 18 semi-structured interviews and three focus group interviews with new graduates and construction managers in Sweden’s three largest construction firms. The results show that despite having relevant skills, new graduates play a limited role when they are first recruited, as they struggle to close the “knowledge-experience gap”. Gradually, whilst familiarising themselves with how things are done, they act as ambassadors for digitalisation and contribute to the modification of senior colleagues’ beliefs about how technology could be used. However, this development is hampered by them getting caught-up in messy everyday activities, which forces them – like other staff – to prioritise urgent issues over important ones. An observed lack of established practices for how to make use of students’ skills hampers their involvement further. It has been suggested that urgency might not only be a problem, but a solution in that it is possible to increase the sense of urgency around new way of working with digital technologies.