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CIOB News
Covid-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
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Event held on-line for first time
The 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 – 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.
ABOVE: Winning team with CIOB Cup. Stephen Donovan, Conor Evans, Jospeh Kehoe, PJ Duggan, Shane Browne
Opportunity
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 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
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
will be valuable when I enter into the workplace in the coming months.
‘Working as a team and under time constraints, I believe each of the four of us worked great together and all were very in sync when answering the judges’ questions.
‘There were some worries as this event was held virtually for the first time, due to Covid restrictions but there was a great flow to the day.
‘There was a great standard amongst the Institutes and universities and the judges must have had a hard time selecting the overall winner.
‘I felt it a great sense of achievement after a tough day but it was a great victory and we were happy also for our lecturer Joe Kehoe who has been a great mentor during our 4 years at MTU.’
Unique opportunity
P.J. Duggan says he volunteered to take part in the CIOB student
challenge as it ‘o ers the unique opportunity to take part in a realistic project environment, as indicated by our lecturer and course coordinator Joe Kehoe.
‘I saw it as a chance to use the skills and knowledge that I have learned during my time with MTU, in a competition against other Institutes and universities in this allIreland competition.’
The benefits, according to P.J. were enormous:
‘Taking part and winning the CIOB Student Challenge Ireland has increased my credibility in the job market, as indicated from numerous job interviews that have followed, with conversations always tending to lead to talking about the CIOB Student Challenge win.’
The opportunity to present with confidence, work as a team under a time deadline, ask industry experts their views on topics within the challenge, and meet with students from other institutes and universities can all be seen as key benefits of taking part in the challenge, says P.J.
‘I would definitely recommend to future Construction Management Students to take part.’
Benefits
Shane Browne echoed P.J.’s remarks. He cited as benefits the opportunity to meet ‘leading members of the industry’ during the course of the Student Challenge.
In addition, Shane also enjoyed the communication with other student members of the construction industry and indeed, ‘testing yourself against other students’ as well!
Another aspect he found to be of benefit was the opportunity to gain experience at presenting in front of people.
This is often something that students will find themselves doing over the course of their future careers and just another benefit of taking part in the CIOB’s Student Challenge.
ABOVE: Derek Cassidy, Dublin Hub Chair, CIOB)
A message from Hub chair
‘Huge congratulations to Shane, PJ, Stephen and Conor from the Munster Technological University Team on winning this year’s CIOB Student Challenge.
‘Very well done to all of the entries. They all demonstrated real intelligence and ingenuity and there was really very little to choose between them at the end.
‘It was a fantastic competition which was delivered online for the first time and credit must also be given to the CIOB team, the judges, the lecturers, the colleges, the special guests and to our sponsors for their contribution.
‘It’s been a really di cult period for students with the onset of Covid 19, the subsequent move to online learning, restrictions etc. as contributing factors.
‘But what these guys have demonstrated is that Irish students are a resilient, intelligent bunch and I am confident that the future of our industry is bright.
‘Again, well done to all.’
Derek Cassidy FCIOB, chair of the Dublin Hub of CIOB
Conor Evans was another who saw a great opportunity in being able to ‘challenge myself and take part against other colleges and universities in the country’.
Being a virtual event this year, says Conor, just added to the challenge. ‘This event,’ he adds, ‘is like a real-life scenario so it replicates situations we will face in the coming years.
He explains: ‘We got a brief in the morning and we had to work as a team to break down the tasks and nominate who completed each task.
‘At the end we all worked together to combine our work and make a short presentation to the judges.
‘This was all done under time constraints adding to the pressure.
‘We all worked well as a team to show our knowledge and apply what we have learnt over the years in university.
‘Each of us bought di erent skills which we combined together to complete the tasks.
‘It was a great experience to meet industry professionals and work with the team under pressure to achieve the Gold Medal together.’
May 2021, saw the launch of the CIOB Awards Ireland: Construction Manager of the Year 2022 take place virtually. This much-anticipated event featured speakers including Mark Beard, CIOB President, Alan Barnes, 2019 CMYA Winner and Dermot Carey and Tara Flynn from the CIF. MC for the event was Clare McMahon, University of Ulster.
The CIOB Awards Ireland: ‘Construction Manager of the Year’ competition represents a challenge for the contestants to accurately identify their overall role in the completion of the complex and involved projects for which they have made an entry into this competition.
Stages
The initial stages of the competition are paper-based. Those who make it to the final are invited, by the adjudicators, to interview.
The very high level of management expertise in Ireland gives assessors and adjudicators an extremely difficult job, and year-on-year, the standard of entry continues to rise.
The competition culminates with an awards dinner in Croke Park, where the winners of each category are awarded gold and silver medals, with one overall winner chosen from the gold medalists.
Winners
We consider all of our finalists to be winners and agree that they deserve the respect and admiration of the industry for the excellent work they do.
It is seen as a prestigious award within the Irish construction industry and one which is much coveted for its recognition of the excellent skills of the recipient.
Full details on how to enter the competition are available at www. ciob.org/ciob-awards-ireland
ABOVE: Alan Barnes, 2019 CMYA Winner
CIOB Ireland Brexit series
In response to the many Brexitrelated queries we received at our ‘Meet the CIOB’ Roadshow in January, CIOB Ireland coordinated a Brexit information series for members, which took place over three consecutive Wednesdays in May.
Webinars
Over three lunchtime webinars, we looked at where the industry is now in relation to Brexit and explored solutions to issues raised by members at the roadshow.
On 12 May, we had a very informative and engaging presentation and Q&A with Mark Spence, managing director of CEF NI and Paul Sheridan, Director of Main Contracting at the CIF.
On 19 May, James Golden, Director, at Quigg Golden, discussed the potential impacts of Brexit for Irish Construction companies, including the impact on construction contracts, the potential impact on labour, plant and material availability and public sector procurement.
ABOVE: CIOB Graduation (file picture)
CIOB Ireland graduations
We are delighted to be able to provide you with a date for your diary for the 2021 CIOB Ireland Graduations.
The Dublin event is scheduled for 2 October, 2021, in the beautiful Kilashee Hotel, Co. Kildare, while the Belfast Graduation will take place in Queens University on 20 November. Booking details will be announced shortly, at time of writing.
Supports
The session on 26 May incorporated presentations from Deirdre Maguire, Intertrade Ireland and John Hunt, Enterprise Ireland, outlining Brexit-related supports available to Irish Construction companies.
We would like to extend a huge thanks to all speakers who supported this event, and to our MC for the series, John Sweeney, Dublin Hub Committee member.
Annette Main is the current Vice Chair of the Dublin Hub of CIOB meaning she is next in line to succeed Derek Cassidy as Chair. Following our extensive chat with Derek in our last issue we met up ‘virtually’ with Annette to hear about her CIOB journey and much more!
Annette Main is a people person. That much is immediately clear when arranging to chat to the current Vice Chair of the Dublin Hub of CIOB.
She speaks thoughtfully and enthusiastically about the industry she has worked in for over twenty years and of the professional body which, she indicates, has played a pivotal role in her career development.
A natural choice
Arriving in Kerry or ‘coming back to Kerry’ as Annette describes her family relocation from San Francisco, when she was fourteen, she saw Construction as a completely natural choice.
In large part this was because Annette’s father is in the business. ‘I could read a set of plans before I read a book!’ she laughs.
She is of course only too aware that it was not always the same for other females of her generation.
Out of seventy in her Civil Engineering course in CIT, (now MTU), around forty graduated and three graduates were female.
When she was in school there was still often the feeling amongst females that this area was not something for you, ‘not something for a girl’.
Countering this
Whether or not this was actually expressed directly in such stark terms or in subtler ways than that, it was without doubt something that females were often left feeling – countering this can still be a challenge.
Is it changing? Yes, but not quickly enough, might be the short answer from Annette.
Partly it is about being able to see someone like oneself in a role – or having someone ‘normalise’ the role or the industry for you.
That is what can make the difference when it comes to following a certain path.
To Annette, ‘seeing a set of plans on dad’s desk,’ was just that: ‘normal’. Seeing a set of plans on a female parent’s desk would clearly be a
welcome step up from this scenario.
Civil Engineering at CIT followed the Leaving Cert in Kerry for Annette.
This was followed by a career (see panel) that would take her from site engineer to manager working on a number of Cork-based projects, to a role as a planner with PJ Hegarty’s in Cork.
There she became a member of the CIOB through a training partnership programme that a number of employees took part in.
Transfer
Working at Davis Langdon Annette was offered a transfer and worked in the Middle East in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, becoming the most senior planner with the company in the region.
Following a number of high profile projects including a campus for New York University in Abu Dhabi, by Tamkeen – a twenty-one building campus in the middle of the desert, Annette returned to Cork and eventually found her current position with PM Group in project controls.
At the end of the day she credits CIOB membership as a ‘launchpad’ in her career.
Benefits of CIOB
‘CIOB chartership was a launchpad for me to be able to move out from mainstream construction to more of a consultant’s role and more of a management role as well,’ Annette says. 'It was a launchpad for me to be able to go to the Middle East and to work on some massive projects.’
The message is: It really does make a difference.
‘In secondary school I found you had two choices for CSA, you did Civil/ Structural Engineering or you did Construction Management,’ Annette recalls.
‘I didn’t want to do Construction Management. I wanted to do Project Management but in the construction industry.
‘When I did my Leaving Cert in ‘95 and was going into construction, there were not the courses there to do that, but now there is much more choice.
‘Attaining the CIOB Chartership proved I did have a fundamental understanding of construction, right across the board, from the QS side, to scheduling and contract admin.
‘All of that was wrapped up, plus the technical knowledge of construction itself.’
Network
Of course there is a whole other side to membership too. It’s something Annette stressed when she went for the seat on the Hub Committee.
She explains: ‘I went to the Middle East and I went there knowing nobody. However, I found that CIOB had a branch in Dubai and it was a way of meeting people and seeing what was happening – seeing how things work in a different country from those who had perhaps been there longer.
‘It was really beneficial that there was this point of contact. I am still friends with a lot of people I met there.
‘At the end of the day the industry is quite small no matter where you are!’
Confidence
It was more than just social connections though – ‘what it did was give me confidence at work’, says Annette. 'For example: if I had questions, there was a network there and backup.
‘I could ask questions from others; ask advice from people who had been there for years.’
Annette went on to become CIOB Vice Chair in Abu Dhabi and was
involved with the organization in Dubai as well.
At home again and former Hub Chair, John McSweeney, who she did her Chartership with, encouraged her to get involved, she says.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Annette went for a seat on the Hub committee and is now Vice Chair.
Succession
Annette refers to giving something back by those who have had such positive experiences from their CIOB membership and how it is a common theme.
It brings us to the area of succession planning. Succession-planning for the Hub is an area very much on her radar.
‘It is something I’m trying to push’, she says. You want to encourage and coach the new and upcoming members.
‘The benefits are enormous if you give the CIOB a chance. The world is your oyster.’
And from Annette’s own career journey so far, this is clearly the case.
She speaks now of ‘getting new people involved, getting that younger
new energy, getting numbers up’.
It’s not so much recruiting new ones, she says, ‘but getting others to realise there is more to this than a few letters after your name. There’s so much that can be done!’
Gender equality
would be significant to Annette? ‘I think there is a real need to get more gender equality in the industry,’ she says.
‘I know it’s not going to happen overnight but there are, I think, ways to make it better.’
It's here that Annette offers an insightful observation – one that shows not only her inclusiveness and sense of fairness but her deepunderstanding of the dynamics of her industry.
‘Looking at the likes of project administrators,’ she says. ‘I know a lot of them are women who went in as maybe secretaries and administrators, for example.
‘Many have worked in construction for years and could run projects but don’t have that sort of recognition. Yet some of these do so much work.
‘I think there should be something there to recognize such people. I’ve been speaking to some people about it.
‘There has to be some recognition for such people who contribute highly and can find themselves doing quite specialist work – work that you can’t just walk in off the street and start to do!
‘There are a lot of these admin people with these great skills who are not fully recognised.’
Big picture
And in terms of the big picture, yes, it is changing for females, slowly, says Annette. ‘STEMS and working with Transition Year (TY) students is helping.
‘We really need to push more in primary schools. It is something that should be introduced there.
‘It’s so important. I think it’s a lot more open now but I’m not sure it’s as encouraged as much as it should be for everyone to take up.’
Boom and bust
Looking to the future, Ireland as a country is good at bouncing back and saying, ‘we will fight another day’, observes Annette.
‘But the boom-bust nature of the industry has to be addressed in order to attract and retain people – both male and female.
‘We must figure out how to change and reduce that. We are still seeing the effects of the crash nowadays, where we have fewer tradespeople for example.
Covid
The effects of the Covid-19 situation are not overlooked by Annette of course when it comes to current issues.
‘A pandemic is something no one would have had on their register, they will look at contract clauses in a new light,’ she says.
With the current backdrop of the pandemic, of course, CIOB have done great work in pivoting to online, agrees Annette.
The introduction of the Vitrual CPD and the Online Student Challenge too of course, are testimony to this. (See our report in this issue.)
Missing out
However, says Annette, those who are studying and training currently ‘are really missing out on developing those relationships you form with people in your class.
‘They are your future network, it’s about being able to talk to others and get their advice and opinion.
‘They are going to miss that connection and support.
‘Also, everyone likes to learn new skills and that is something that can be missing when you are not in a group setting.
‘It's all about learning, moving forward.’
Annette Main is current Vice Chair of the Dublin CIOB Hub. Chartership, she says, ‘was a launchpad’ in expanding her career.
CIOB at the heart of a varied and exciting career!
‘After college at CIT, (now MTU, where I studied Civil Engineering), I started out as a site engineer and then progressed to site manager over time and worked on a variety of projects around Cork.'
Annette Main, current Vice Chair of the CIOB Dublin Hub Committee is looking back over her professional journey to date; tracing her path over the course of a busy and rewarding period where the emphasis has been on continual learning and progression. CIOB was of course central to this journey. Her engagement with the organization began in earnest when she was working at PJ Hegarty & Sons, in Cork as a planner.
‘That was the time I went for my CIOB membership,’ Annette Recalls. As often happens, a course supported by the company led to a number of employees there gaining chartership with CIOB. The organization worked with them toward this goal. 'It was a way of getting recognition for experience I had gained through my onsite work,’ says Annette.
‘It’s a professional standard, a way to be able to say that, yes, I do have this experience, do understand the processes that go along with construction etc.'
Consultants
Next, Annette went to work with Davis Langdon and spent a year with them in Cork. This brings us up to 2008 when things were looking a little shaky at home in our sector.
‘They put me forward for a transfer,’ says Annette. ‘I was o ered to go anywhere I chose.
‘I managed to get a position in Bahrain. It was the particular role really that attracted me as they were looking for a planner at the time.
‘I landed there in January 2009 and had not heard of the country before I had gotten the job!’
True to form, this did not stop Annette from hitting the ground running. She spent nine months there and was then transferred to Abu Dhabi as a planner, still with Davis Langdon.
She would eventually become lead planner with them for Dubai and Abu Dhabi – the most senior planner they had in the region.
Project management
Annette moved on to work for the Abu Dhabi government – more specifically, working for a company called Tamkeen, which was set up by the government to facilitate the construction, opening and transition of the New York University campus in Abu Dhabi.
‘The company’s aim was to facilitate the design and construction and also their whole transition into the country. We built a twentyone building campus in the middle of the desert at the time,’ recalls Annette.
‘I was responsible for managing design and construction work.’
Ireland
The next move was back to Ireland. ‘I had gotten married and was expecting a second child,’ says Annette. ‘We decided to move back with the family growing.
‘After maternity leave, I worked for a company called Strata Project Solutions. It is a planning company in Dublin doing planning and scheduling consultancy for contractors.
‘Strata provides resources for those who don t have their own scheduling resources. a second child,’ says Annette. ‘We decided to
Annette Main is currently Planning Manager with PM Group.
PM
‘After a year and a half I wanted to be back in PM and jointed as a planner with PM group and became a project controller there.
‘It was not exactly the PM role I had in Abu Dhabi but still about project control – looking after all schedules, costs, and all that goes along with the projects here.’
