The program provides a pathway for students to move into the construction management roles by gaining valuable experience on real world construction projects. Could construction management study work for you too?
Sharyn Connelle had been involved in public infrastructure projects for 10 years before she enrolled in the UTS Graduate Certificate in Construction Management.
A project manager at the City of Gold Coast parks department, Sharyn wanted to formalise her extensive on-the-job training with a postgraduate qualification. She was also on the lookout for some specific expertise that would help round out her skillset and prepare her to continue progressing in an already high-level career.
Learning to cost the construction of residential and commercial properties, the nitty gritty of building regulations and quality management were areas of construction management that were new to me.
Even though I had transferable experience, I hadn’t actually learnt those things the way I did in the course.
The UTS degree – one of only a handful of postgraduate qualifications with a construction focus – delivered. The curriculum spanned everything from basic construction management through to time, quality and risk management; construction technology and regulation; and construction cost planning and control. Assessments were based on real construction projects – Sharyn completed a construction management plan for Liverpool Place in Sydney, a quality management plan for Westmead Hospital’s acute care services building, a risk management plan for a high-rise commercial development issued with a stop work notice, and a cost management plan for an apartment block.
For the cost planning assignment, I had to cost the construction of an apartment block, three stories high. We had the opportunity to use the latest software in cost planning, which is 3D software," she says.
"So, rather than just being on paper, now you actually do cost take-offs from a 3D computerised model of the building. You learn how to read the model and you can cost every single item on it, generate budgets and produce highly professional budget reports."
"These types of skills are directly transferable to the workplace."
For Sharyn, that workplace is now a place full of potential: with a postgraduate qualification, she feels ready to take on higher-level roles and start applying her learning to increasingly significant and complex projects.
"I look back now and I couldn’t be more proud of the Reports and Management Plans for the different areas of construction I’ve produced for such high calibre construction projects," she says.
"I’m amazed at what I’ve come out the degree with."
