July 5, 2010

BCIT

Students in BCIT’s Bachelor of Technology in Construction Management program.

Bachelor degree in construction management offers flexibility

BRIAN MARTIN

correspondent

A construction management program is offering graduates a change to earn a degree, in addition to increasing their job prospects. The Bachelor of Technology in Construction Management has been offered for the last decade at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT).

It’s still a popular program, 10 years later, although it has evolved to meet industry demand.

It is open to students from many different walks of life.

The current program director – and only director the program has had – is Beth Currie, a civil engineer.

It is a degree completion program.

It offers the equivalent of the last two years of a four-year degree program.

The first two years can be made up of formal training, industry experience or a combination of both.

There are various ways of taking the bachelor program.

Most students utilize evening and online courses.

There is also another route, however.

Students can take an intensive 10-month program that will give them two thirds of the credits they require.

The remaining third will be earned on a part-time evening and online basis.

Students entering the program may have a related diploma or degree, Currie pointed out.

“We get a lot of civil engineers who are trained elsewhere in the world,” she said.

“They come straight in.”

At the same time, the program also accepts people who have post secondary education in an unrelated field in areas as different as political science degrees and arts degrees.

“A lot of those people have worked in the construction field for quite a while, but they haven’t had the formal education,” she said.

There are strict requirements for being accepted into the program.

Currie personally interviews and assesses each candidate for their academic background and their industry experience.

Another group of possible candidates involves people with minimal education and minimal experience or people, who have certificates of qualification in a related construction trade such as plumbing or electrical.

Often incoming students need to take bridge courses, Currie explained.

She sits down with each of them and decides what type of courses they will require before being accepted.

Those courses will often involves things such as reading blueprints, estimating, technical writing or project management.

The program is offered part-time so people working in the construction industry can come to BCIT in the evening and do some of their courses online.

Although they have up to seven years to complete, it, Currie explained that the majority manage to do it in four or five years.

Graduates can be spotted throughout the industry.

She said that they can be found working for agencies such as BC Hydro and Metro Vancouver.

Some grads end up working for architectural firms, engineering companies and private developers.

Still others, having completed their degrees, strike out into business on their own.

“They cover a very wide spectrum,” Currie said.

“Because we let in people with such a wide variety of backgrounds, we’re not graduating people who have come out of the same box. They all have different skills.”

In the program, the students are learning management skills, she pointed out.

“It is quite different from an engineering degree, for example, to which it is most commonly compared,” she said.

As is the norm at BCIT, the instructors in the program are drawn from industry.

Getting rich isn’t a motive.

“Most of the instructors are doing it to give back to society,” said Currie.

“They have altruistic reasons. They are doing it because they like students, they like sharing their experience and they like giving back to society.”

The students, in turn, have an opportunity to give back to the construction industry – and not just by being better employees.

The last stage in getting their degree involves completing an industry-based project in conjunction with a sponsor.

The idea is for them to apply what they have learned in looking for answers to real industry or company problems.

Commonly their sponsor will be their employer.

However, not all students are employed, particularly those taking the 10-month full-time course.

“This is where there is an opportunity,” said Currie.

“We are able to connect the students with the industry.

“There is a very real opportunity for them to do something that is of genuine value to somebody.”

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