| Summary: | Many strategies for emerging construction contractor development that are based on
instruments such as targeted procurement have generally failed to empower emerging
contractors because they are implemented without well-defined skills transfer
frameworks. Emerging contractors continue to be regarded by construction clients and
suppliers as a high commercial risk area and this presents further barriers to meaningful
property development. Related to this is the lack of clear policy targets against which to
measure the effectiveness of contractor support programmes.
Furthermore, the majority of current support initiatives lack an integrated programme
strategy. Interventions tend to be characterised by inadequate preparations, poor needs
assessments and an inadequate understanding of the development needs of emerging
contractors. This is evident by discontinuances, unstructured training approaches, ad-hoc
mentorship, inadequate monitoring and evaluation that promote unsustainable skills
transfer.
The Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) has put in place a training and
mentoring programme that would result in the development of emerging contractors into
sustainable business enterprises. The impact of the programme may be measured to
determine the overall effectives of the programme in delivering developed and
sustainable contractors to the construction industry.
The above mentioned factors identified lead to the following problem that is addressed by
the research:
The problem statement addressed by the study is how to develop a holistic approach
towards integrated skills development for emerging construction contractors, by
developing a model that can be managed with quantitative and measurable outcomes.
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