A best practice framework for training UK construction site managers.

Training has long been recognised as one of the fundamental processes to assist the UK construction industry meet the increasing the demand for adequately trained and qualified construction site managers. However, inadequate commitment by organisations to training, coupled with the recognised fragmentation of the industry perpetuates major hurdles to achieving this objective. Whilst the site manager's role has evolved over the years through changes within the industry, their training at the industry level continue to be provided along the established mode offered by the Chartered Institute of Building's Certificate and Diploma Site Management training (CIOB C/DSM) and the National/Scottish Vocational Qualifications Site Supervision and Site Management (NVQ/SVQ SS/SM) training schemes. This have led critics to argue that the difficulties of meeting the industry's need for trained site managers are associated with inadequacies within the training provisions offered by these schemes. This research was undertaken in recognition for the need for a critical appraisal of their training provisions with a view for improvements. It was developed on the concepts of training best practice which advocates improving the training provisions concurrent with change through the process of re-learning the whole training process. The effectiveness of the training provisions offered by the training schemes and the impact of variables on the site managers' training needs were critically investigated. 'Gaps' within the training provisions were identified, approaches to bridge these 'gaps' were investigated and proposed for improvement. The substantial contribution of the research is the expansion of the knowledge of the factors that impinge on the effective provisions for training site managers. The research findings propounds the conviction that the current training provisions needs to be expanded to be more effective and this can be achieved with the best practice framework for training site managers identified by the research.