Roadmap for Redefining the Competencies of Malaysian Building Surveyors in the Post-COVID-19 Era

The construction sector has been heavily impacted, globally, and locally, by the COVID-19 crisis since the beginning of the Movement Control Order in Malaysia in mid-March of 2020. This situation has severely impacted construction practitioners, building surveyors and the construction industry overall. Adaptations are necessary to continue updating professional needs and skillsets while minimising the negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the supply of, and demand for, building surveying services. To ensure the continuous improvement of surveying practice, this study asks, “What new competencies skillset is required by building surveyors in Malaysia to deal with the post-pandemic crisis?” Therefore, this study attempts to redefine a new set of competencies that Malaysian building surveyors will need to succeed in the post-COVID-19 era. The research data for this study was collected using a qualitative method approach that involved analysing and reviewing documents such as the guidelines, standards and policies from the national and international professional bodies that govern this profession. Based on the document review and analysis approach, the study highlights how fourteen competencies are emphasised by the five professional bodies governing the building surveying profession. The study provides significant benefits to building surveyors, who can improve their employability, as well as to fresh graduates and undergraduates preparing for the working environment. It also offers valuable insights for policy makers and surveying institutions on how to structure their adaptation and plans to overcome the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic that will confront building surveying practitioners

Roadmap for Redefining the Competencies of Malaysian Building Surveyors in the Post-COVID-19 Era

The construction sector has been heavily impacted, globally, and locally, by the COVID-19 crisis since the beginning of the Movement Control Order in Malaysia in mid-March of 2020. This situation has severely impacted construction practitioners, building surveyors and the construction industry overall. Adaptations are necessary to continue updating professional needs and skillsets while minimising the negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the supply of, and demand for, building surveying services. To ensure the continuous improvement of surveying practice, this study asks, “What new competencies skillset is required by building surveyors in Malaysia to deal with the post-pandemic crisis?” Therefore, this study attempts to redefine a new set of competencies that Malaysian building surveyors will need to succeed in the post-COVID-19 era. The research data for this study was collected using a qualitative method approach that involved analysing and reviewing documents such as the guidelines, standards and policies from the national and international professional bodies that govern this profession. Based on the document review and analysis approach, the study highlights how fourteen competencies are emphasised by the five professional bodies governing the building surveying profession. The study provides significant benefits to building surveyors, who can improve their employability, as well as to fresh graduates and undergraduates preparing for the working environment. It also offers valuable insights for policy makers and surveying institutions on how to structure their adaptation and plans to overcome the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic that will confront building surveying practitioners

The development of on job training assessment constructs and elements for construction technology students in Malaysian vocational college

On Job Training (OJT) (organisation) assessment rubric is widely considered instrumental in assessing Diploma in Construction Technology students with required competencies to function effectively in the work environment. OJT remains predominantly process-focused with little attention to the criteria in OJT (organisation) assessment rubric. The aim of this study is to develop constructs and elements for OJT (organisation) assessment rubric. The research design for this study is a survey that was carried out qualitatively through document analysis to identify the constructs and elements in the OJT (organisation) assessment rubric. From meta data analysis, 110 elements are identified to be the constructs and elements in OJT (organisation) assessment rubric. After the expert validation process using questionnaire form as an instrument, only 75 elements are valid to be included in the OJT (organisation) assessment rubric while 35 elements discarded. The majority of experts agreed that four elements are suitable to be constructs of soft skills, 5 items are suitable to be constructs of technical skills while remaining 66 elements divided into technical skills and soft skills. Based on the 66 elements, 45 elements are technical skills and 21 elements in soft skills. Therefore, it is suggested to conduct a pilot study for the reliability of constructs and elements of developed OJT (organisation) assessment rubric of Diploma in Construction Technology

Mismatch in Supply and Demand of Building Surveying Graduates' Skills: A Triangulation Perspective

The mismatch in the supply and demand of graduates is fast becoming a central issue for employee performance nowadays. A primary concern of this issue is a result of a higher competence demanded by employers, the change in the industry, competition among graduates, and new global economic practices. Enabling industries to lead curriculum development is one of the initiatives in enhancing the quality of the programme to improve graduate employability and producing quality technical and vocational education and training (TVET) graduates. Despite the various models that have been employed towards individual career development, there are problems of job skills mismatch and the lack of qualified graduates with technical and non-technical skills. Thus, this study attempts to clarify a mismatch in the supply and demand of building surveying graduates' skills from the perspectives of employers, lecturers, and the students. This study investigates building surveying academicians and the industryâ's perspective regarding building surveying graduates' performance, as well as to identify students' awareness towards the current industry demand. Data for this study was collected using a qualitative method approach that involved a semi-structured interview with 10 building surveying students, 5 lecturers, and 5 building surveyor practitioners; the non-probability sampling design that was used in this study was based on the snowball sampling technique, and a content analysis approach had been employed in the analysis of the data using NVivo 11 software. The findings indicate that there is a mismatch in the supply and demand of building surveying graduates' skills. This study offers an important insight into the building surveying programme towards the improvement of the programme's syllabus and its learning outcomes. The study suggests that building surveying graduates should acquire and demonstrate both technical and non-technical skills that are demanded by the industry. Further research is suggested to identify the competency level among entry-level building surveyor graduates in real working practices

Evaluating the Content Validity: Development of An Instrument for Measuring Functional Building Performance

Managing the selection of relevant criteria for functional building performance is essential for the building management team because it is strongly related with building occupants’ satisfaction and achievement of organizational objectives. In the current state of functional building performance evaluation, previous studies have shown that the criteria vary that depends on the facility types and purpose of conducting performance evaluation. These selection criteria have a direct impact on functional building performance and need to be done in in a systematic way. The content validity of the functional building performance evaluation instrument is essential step in the instrument development. Therefore, this research aims to evaluate the content validity of Functional Building Performance (FBP) evaluation by using Content Validity Index (CVI) and modified Kappa coefficient. In achieving this research aim, a set of questionnaires was developed based on numerous construct items that obtained from previous studies by various authors and researchers. The selected expert panel in the field of historic building management and building performance evaluation such as local municipality, related government agencies, academician and building management team reviewed and rated the instrument to ensure its relevance and representativeness of each item. The final instrument contained 39 items that is valid and considered to be retained and all items will be further tested in next study. The result also shown the S-CVI/ Ave for all items meet the criterion of 0.90

Evaluating the Content Validity: Development of An Instrument for Measuring Functional Building Performance

Managing the selection of relevant criteria for functional building performance is essential for the building management team because it is strongly related with building occupants’ satisfaction and achievement of organizational objectives. In the current state of functional building performance evaluation, previous studies have shown that the criteria vary that depends on the facility types and purpose of conducting performance evaluation. These selection criteria have a direct impact on functional building performance and need to be done in in a systematic way. The content validity of the functional building performance evaluation instrument is essential step in the instrument development. Therefore, this research aims to evaluate the content validity of Functional Building Performance (FBP) evaluation by using Content Validity Index (CVI) and modified Kappa coefficient. In achieving this research aim, a set of questionnaires was developed based on numerous construct items that obtained from previous studies by various authors and researchers. The selected expert panel in the field of historic building management and building performance evaluation such as local municipality, related government agencies, academician and building management team reviewed and rated the instrument to ensure its relevance and representativeness of each item. The final instrument contained 39 items that is valid and considered to be retained and all items will be further tested in next study. The result also shown the S-CVI/ Ave for all items meet the criterion of 0.90