Abstract
M.Tech. (Construction Management)
Challenges of skills shortage in the Built Environment to a larger extent are blamed as the source of negative progress on projects under construction in South Africa. This challenge, therefore, creates a burden on the little available resources, which results in inadequate and unsustainable design, haphazard project planning, chaotic project management and taking a long time to complete projects. Extensive research has shown that project implementation in those circumstances will result in many variation orders which creates budget overruns, a long time to complete projects and poor quality of work. There are a lot of studies done in the area of Built Environment skills shortage but have only concentrated on developed areas (urban centres) of South Africa. The importance of this study is that it investigated the effects of low construction skills sets available in projects (service) delivery in the rural areas of the Free State, which in most cases are not favoured by Built Environment skills sets. Different organisations in the rural areas have challenges in filling vacant engineering and Built Environment professional posts, with an apparent impact on service delivery for their communities. The research was done as a Quantitative analysis. The research participants (the population) were identified to be the Built Environment personnel staying and working in the Free State province or those with knowledge of the rural areas of the Free State province. Municipality employees in the project management and engineering departments, consulting engineers, the Department of public works and human settlements who were working on projects in rural areas were identified as suitable populations to participate in this study. The theoretical population was estimated to be close to two hundred and forty (240) Built Environment personnel estimated from the fact that Free State province has twenty local municipalities with one municipality estimated to have twelve (12) Built Environment professionals. A total of about (sixty) 60 was considered sufficient for data analysis. A questionnaire was distributed to site agents, quantity surveyors, project managers, architects, planners, etc. was used to collect data. The results show that there is indeed a skills shortage in the Built Environment of rural areas of Free State province in South Africa which has a great negative impact on the success of projects. Among the top negative challenges are poor site management during construction, poor project documentation such as bill of quantities (BOQ) and design project specifications, the inability to provide sensible solutions on-site, and the inability to provide acceptable iv solutions on the ground (on-site). The municipalities themselves suffer from a delay in implementing key projects and failure to supervise and spend allocated funds on projects. According to research done by other authors, there are still challenges in urban areas, but the magnitude is far less than the rural areas. Simple things like delays in making key decisions on-site, more accurate bill of quantities, and fewer budget overruns are not common. To arrest this challenge, recommendations that allow government and any other employers to increase allowances and reasonable benefits which will assist in attracting the required construction skills to the remote municipalities of South Africa.