The Construction Products Competence Working Group, also known as Working Group 12 (WG12), has been setting the levels of knowledge and experience needed by anyone that interacts with a product during the lifecycle of a building.
Douglas Masterson, technical manager at the Guild of Architectural Ironmongers (GAI), became deputy chair of the Construction Products Competence Working Group in April, and is also a member of the CSG.
He described the group’s report Setting the Bar as a huge achievement. Douglas, pictured, said: “The Construction Products group has collaborated with other working groups to help them understand the competencies required when other professionals in the construction supply chain interact with the construction products sector. From procurement and specification, through to installers and building management, we’ve been looking at the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours that are needed among those groups too, to ensure all these people will be implementing best practice construction processes.
“For the GAI to be helping to lead this initiative that will shape the future of the wider construction products industry is important recognition of how vital our sector is in the overall picture. We know our products are not the biggest or most expensive in the construction supply chain. Our own research showed that the average spend on ironmongery is between one and two percent of the value of a new-build. But the impact of what we do is huge.
“For GAI members, there is already a lot they can start to work on internally to address the recommendations of the Setting the Bar report. Do they have all the required skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours within their own teams? Can they demonstrate this competence to customers? Continued professional development is at the heart of the whole report, not just for those working directly with construction products, and one recommendation is to mandate CPD for all roles within the construction industry. In this regard, those of our members who are already RegAIs, or are working towards RegAI status, are leading the way for construction products professionals.”
An initial summary of WG12’s approach is included in the Setting the Bar report, but the full construction products competency matrix will be published in a separate report later this year alongside a plan and proposals for the supporting structure.
You can read the Setting the Bar report, and a summary, at the Construction Industry Council (CIC) website http://cic.org.uk/.
Douglas Masterson and Hanna Clarke, secretary of WG12, industry response group committee member and policy manager at the Construction Products Association, have also filmed a Q&A video about the Group’s input into the Setting the Bar report. Watch the video on the GAI website: www.gai.org.uk/IndustryUpdates.
