Technical Human Capital Obsolescence and Age Relationship in the Building Construction Industry: A case of Nigeria (Published)
The Building Construction Industry (BCI) is among the businesses that depend on the agility and viability of the workforce. Consequently, it invests heavenly in the development of employees’ knowledge and skills, otherwise known as human capital. However, individual’s human capital is bound to deteriorate owning to atrophy (nonuse of skills) and inevitable changes, which could be as a result of ageing process, wear, injuries, and/or illnesses, in the individual. This deterioration is known technical human capital obsolescence. Thus, using descriptive study, this paper investigates technical human capital obsolescence in the BCI and its relationship with workers’ aging. Three research questions guided the study and questionnaire was administered to 387 randomly selected BCI workers. 278 questionnaires representing 71.83 percent were successfully completed and returned. The data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, Pearson Correlation Coefficient, Kruskal-Wallis H test statistics and SPSS software. The findings indicate, among other things, that, individual’s technical obsolescence due to wear is not a function of age. It is recommended that the industry and her workers intermittently evaluate their skills with the view of finding the specific obsolescence and providing measure(s) to alleviate its effects in the industry.
Keywords: : Human Capital, Industry, Nigeria, Technical, age relationship, building construction, obsolescence
Determination of the Effects of Building Constructions on the Health of Site Workers in Minna, Nigeria (Published)
Building construction activities and accidents on construction sites are significantly rated high in Nigeria. To reduce this problem, various building construction sites in Minna metropolis were studied and the aim was to determine the extent in which the health of workers are being affected by the construction activities by taking into considerations, the sources of responsible hazards, in order to generate guidelines to reduce hazards in construction sites in Nigeria. 10 different areas in Minna metropolis were used for this research. In each of these areas, data were collected from two building construction sites. The types of buildings that were studied are residential, commercial and institutional buildings. Primary data were obtained through interviews and structured checklist. In each of the building construction site, five workers were interviewed. Secondary data were obtained from the reviews of relevant academic materials to this research. Tables and content analysis technique were used to present the data. Among the findings are: the majority of workers have no protective clothing and the frequency of this loop hole is significantly rated very high in all the building construction sites; some workers do not have boots to protect their feet in all the building construction sites that were studied; Among the recommended guidelines are: it must be ensured by the building engineers or the project managers that all the workers should have protective clothing, in order to minimise injuries during the construction activities on the building construction sites; it must also be ensured by the building engineers or the project managers that all the workers should have boots to protect their feet, in order to minimise injuries during the construction activities on the building construction sites.
Keywords: Hazards, Health, building construction, injuries, workers
Determination of the Effects of Building Constructions on the Health of Site Workers in Minna, Nigeria (Published)
Building construction activities and accidents on construction sites are significantly rated high in Nigeria. To reduce this problem, various building construction sites in Minna metropolis were studied and the aim was to determine the extent in which the health of workers are being affected by the construction activities by taking into considerations, the sources of responsible hazards, in order to generate guidelines to reduce hazards in construction sites in Nigeria. 10 different areas in Minna metropolis were used for this research. In each of these areas, data were collected from two building construction sites. The types of buildings that were studied are residential, commercial and institutional buildings. Primary data were obtained through interviews and structured checklist. In each of the building construction site, five workers were interviewed. Secondary data were obtained from the reviews of relevant academic materials to this research. Tables and content analysis technique were used to present the data. Among the findings are: the majority of workers have no protective clothing and the frequency of this loop hole is significantly rated very high in all the building construction sites; some workers do not have boots to protect their feet in all the building construction sites that were studied; Among the recommended guidelines are: it must be ensured by the building engineers or the project managers that all the workers should have protective clothing, in order to minimise injuries during the construction activities on the building construction sites; it must also be ensured by the building engineers or the project managers that all the workers should have boots to protect their feet, in order to minimise injuries during the construction activities on the building construction sites.
Keywords: Hazards, Health, building construction, injuries, workers
