CIOB news
C
ovid-19 could not stop the CIOB Student Challenge, Ireland from going ahead (virtually) this year and from being another resounding success. Construction Management Ireland caught up with the winners and their course co-ordinator to hear about their experience and their views on the benefits of taking part!
MTU emerge victorious at CIOB Student Challenge, Ireland Event held on-line for first time
T
he CIOB Student Challenge Ireland took place online earlier this year and saw MTU emerge as overall winners. The team members are: PJ Duggan, Shane Brown, Stephen Donovan, and Conor Evans. These students were all in the final Year of MTU BSC (Honours) in Construction Management, which is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Building. Second place was taken by Limerick Institute of Technology with Letterkenny IT coming third. The winners were announced by the CIOB president Mark Beard.
Support Joseph Keogh is Course Coordinator of the BSc (Hons) in Construction Management at MTU, and enthusiastically supported the students’ efforts, as always. He tells CMi: ‘I'm extremely proud of our MTU Construction Management students, who volunteered to take part in the CIOB Student Challenge Ireland –
they do in ensuring the event is a success each year and in particular this year – when done virtually.’ www.cit.ie/course/CR572
Overview
ABOVE: Winning team with CIOB Cup. Stephen Donovan, Conor Evans, Jospeh Kehoe, PJ Duggan, Shane Browne
which is an all-Ireland event – and who were successful in winning the competition this year. ‘An area of management which I feel passionate about is providing opportunities for and enabling students to develop their soft management skills, such as communication, interpersonal skills, interacting with people, etc, because the industry they are about to enter, is above all else, a people industry.
Opportunity ‘The Student Challenge provides such an
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opportunity. I advise my students to partake not only as a team but also to partake in a spirit of learning and selfdevelopment, and to have fun in doing so. ‘In terms of learning, students get to see how generous and selfless the industry is in supporting and promoting the event and students, with the involvement of the industry experts in a voluntary capacity. ‘The spirit of community is alive and well in our industry. ‘The CIOB Ireland Hub should be acknowledged for the enormous work
Stephen Donovan from the winning team gave us an overview of the competition and the challenge involved: ‘The event, ran by the CIOB and sponsored by the CIF and Ardmac, is a building challenge for all Construction, Engineering and Architecture students from Institutes of Technology and Universities across Ireland. ‘The team was asked to work on 4 different topic areas. These being, Building Design, Construction Programme, Risk and Procurement, all of which are important areas in our studies. ‘We had 2 hours to prepare a report and a presentation after which the team was given ten minutes to present and answer questions from the industry panel of experts. ‘Personally, I found the challenge very enjoyable and felt the experience
