Utilising design for Six Sigma to implement soft skills in construction education

Abstract

The construction industry demands a competitive pipeline of construction graduates who possess a high level of soft skills coupled with technical skills. The existence of a soft skills gap among construction schools graduates was previously discussed by the authors. To reduce the gap, construction schools were challenged to implement new learning innovations to increase the soft skills level among their graduates. This paper presents the authors' work to develop a theoretical framework that can be used as a decision aid framework to help in designing a reliable holistic soft skills curriculum models. Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) has been identified as the skeleton of the framework. The paper focuses on presenting all tasks and activities that encompass the framework. It is hoped that this framework will offer a continuous collaboration system between the industry and academia so that the teaching activities of construction will improve and broaden the soft skills taught in the classrooms to correlate with those needed in the marketplace. Consequently, it is hoped that the framework will help in bridging the gaps between construction graduates and their employers and ultimately facilitate the recruitment of entry-level construction graduates.