Construction skills requirement issues in Zambia

The construction industry in Zambia plays a pivotal role in the socio-economic development of the country. Being a labour intensive industry, competition between firms in construction depends on the quality of the workforce that companies employ. This paper presents a study that is intended to identify essential factors in the formulation and implementation of policies, training and retraining programmes tailored to deal effectively with the industry’s labour resource requirements. The labour resource audit should serve as a first step towards the process of planning for future construction skill requirements. The study is capturing official details such as head count for trend audits as well as underlying factors obtainable from further qualitative probing to explain any quantitative trends.