Quality Of The Vocational Training For Construction Inspectors

Abstract

The paper addresses the quality of the continuing training and vocational education for the construction inspector job and the harmonized European recognition of this qualification. It is the result of a survey realized in 5 EU countries (Greece, Hungary, Poland, Portugal and Romania) within the fame of the project entitled “Analysis and Comparative Study on construction inspection job performance regulations. European comparative study – KNOWLEDGE”. The general objective was to give recommendations for improving the qualification of civil construction inspectors by identifying the gap between the existing vocational education / training systems, and people/companies’ expectations and needs, as resulted from current literature, in-depth interviews and questionnaire surveys. The conclusions are related to the necessity of developing a training/certification program for the construction inspector, the magnitude and European dimension of such training and certification program, and the thematic areas that the program will cover to meet the construction industry requirements. Courses approaching New Construction Materials, Quality Control Procedures, Legislation on Town Planning, Private Constructions and Public Works, Legislation on Safety Issues in the Construction Industry, and the EU directives were identified as being necessary for updating the knowledge of the construction inspectors. Relevant graphs presenting the continuing training needs of the construction inspectors resulted from the in-depth interviews are presented. It results as a LLL European policy requisite the development of a European Certification for construction inspector.