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