Comparison of Skills Between Sri Lankan and Foreign Construction Labour

Abstract

Construction significantly influences a country’s economy. The labour efforts are the lifeblood of construction operations. The construction industry has been facing many challenges due to skill shortages in many countries. This study aimed to compare the work-related skills of Sri Lankan labour against foreign labour forces. A qualitative study methodology was adopted through literature reviews and expert interviews to identify the labour skills which influence the productivity of construction operations. The interviews were conducted in two categories. The first category focused on identifying significant labour skills, the second category was conducted to compare the labour skills between Sri Lankan and foreign labour. Chinese, Indian, Bangladeshi, Nepalese, Saudi Arabian, Malaysian and Korean labour forces were considered in the pair-wise comparison process. Statement categories and codes were developed to perform this qualitative comparison. The overall results show the need of developing cognitive and self-management skills of Sri Lankan labourers, where the transferable skills are not much important. The study pointed up the importance of developing technical skills of Sri Lankan labour in concreting, bar bending, plastering, tiling, welding, electrical work and equipment handling, to reach the levels of leading foreign labour forces. Labourers’ commitment, punctuality, participation, self-motivation and problem solving were the significant self-management skills in this regard. Kappa statistics resulted in the inter-rater reliability of these findings at a substantial level. The study outcomes can be helpful for the skills development authorities to take actions for filling the skills gap, and also for some foreign construction sectors in similar scenarios

Labour-related factors affecting construction productivity in Sri Lankan building projects: perspectives of engineers and managers

“…This significantly contributes to the improvement of labour productivity in construction activities, but the level of enthusiasm that most Sri Lankan labourers have towards their assigned tasks at their workplaces is inadequate. By comparing with Arabian, Chinese, Korean and Malaysian labour forces, which were the leading foreign labour forces in the skill-based ranked list, Manoharan et al. (2021b) highlighted the significant need for improving the commitment of Sri Lankan labourers in construction.…”

“…The industry consultative experts stated that the cognitive skills of Sri Lankan labourers in various technical operations (specifically concreting, bar bending, plastering, tiling, welding, electrical works and equipment handling) are required to be significantly improved. Manoharan et al (2021b) also revealed that the construction training institutions need to have a special focus on the cognitive skills of labourers in concreting, bar bending, plastering, plumbing, tiling, welding, electrical works, understanding drawings, material handling and equipment handling. Praveen et al (2011) highlighted that the labourers' poor knowledge of understanding drawings and material handling significantly affected the progress of construction activities in Sri Lanka.…”

“…This significantly contributes to the improvement of labour productivity in construction activities, but the level of enthusiasm that most Sri Lankan labourers have towards their assigned tasks at their workplaces is inadequate. By comparing with Arabian, Chinese, Korean and Malaysian labour forces, which were the leading foreign labour forces in the skill-based ranked list, Manoharan et al (2021b) highlighted the significant need for improving the commitment of Sri Lankan labourers in construction. The industry consultative experts stated that the secondary education and vocational training institutes in Sri Lanka must have attention to strengthening the soft skills and attitude domain components in the curricula of their education/training programmes.…”

Organisational Factors Affecting the Productivity of Labour in Sri Lankan Building Construction Projects: Perspective of Engineers

“…ISSC also particularly highlighted the poor cognitive and job-specific technical skills of the Sri Lankan labourers in recent scenarios. Manoharan et al [43] have accentuated the need for improving the cognitive and self-management skills of Sri Lankan labourers through a systematic comparison of the work-related skills between Sri Lankan labour and other leading foreign labour forces, namely Arabian, Chinese, Korean and Malaysian. Manoharan et al [43] have also revealed that construction training institutions in Sri Lanka need to have a special focus on the technical skills of labourers in concreting, bar bending, plastering, tiling, welding, electrical works and equipment handling.…”

“…Vocational Education Commission [25] and Manoharan et al [43] highlighted the need of upgrading the construction supervisory training programmes in the Sri Lankan construction industry with special attention on improving the self-management and transferable skills of construction supervisors.…”