Higher Nationals

Assignment Brief - BTEC (RQF)

Higher National Certificate in Construction and the Built Environment (Construction Pathway)

Unit Number and Title: 4. Construction Practice and Management

Assignment Title: Evolution of the construction industry

Learning Outcomes:

LO1. Describe the construction industry with reference to company structures and other activities.
LO2. Explain different types of construction companies in the market and their relationships within the tendering process.
LO3. Discuss the key stages in a construction project, and how Building Information Modelling informs the different stages.
LO4. Analyse how the construction industry has developed suitable collaboration strategies in support of greater recognition of health & safety.

Assignment Brief and Guidance:

Scenario:

You work for a medium size construction company as a Junior Contracts Manager working under an experienced Manager. Your manager has been asked to write three articles for a major, well known, high circulation, monthly Construction Industry magazine. The three articles aim to explore the evolution of the construction industry and how construction processes, for development, have evolved. As she is an extremely busy executive, she has asked you to draft the articles for her. She has given you three titles and some ideas of content for each as follows:

1. "The evolution of the construction industry past and present": (Historical development of the construction industry, professional and other institutes, including societies, links between professional, technical and skills professionals, contractor and head office structures, site structure and organisation). The article should also contain a critical evaluation of how this evolution has affected the structures and ethos of construction companies.

2. "The construction industry and the tender process" (Company types: professional relationships between companies, contract tendering, tender processes). The article should also contain a comparison of the main factors that differentiate construction companies, contracts and tendering.

3. "The construction industry now" (Master programmes and contract planning techniques, the role of Building Information Modelling (BIM) on the construction industry ,modern procurement methods within construction, sustainability ,key stakeholders in the construction process, BIM and collaboration, health & safety within the construction industry including pre-construction regulations and legislation, site safety, and the impact of health & safety legislation). The article should also contain a detailed analysis of the impact of innovative construction methods and contracts on the evolution of the construction industry.

Task:
Each article is to be around the 1500 word mark.

You should aim to provide examples and case studies referring to actual building companies and you will need to bring out the relationship/s between small, medium and large construction companies.

Attachment:- Construction Practice and Management.rar