Overview
The construction industry is one of the least digitized sectors of the economy (cf. McKinsey Global Institute Industry Digitization Index, 2015). In Switzerland alone, almost 500,000 people are employed in the construction sector and urgently need "digital upskilling". One of the aims is to support educational institutions like Bauen digital Schweiz / buildingSMART Switzerland (BdCH / BSCH), so that level-appropriate training and continuing education can be developed. The "Digital Competency Profiler (DCP)" project builds on the "Competency Assurance Report & Proposal" study commissioned by BdCH / BSCH from three leading experts. The results of the study are now to be put into practice through the development of the DCP in order to identify deficits in the digital competencies of professionals in the construction industry and to make recommendations for training needs.
The DCP is designed as a platform to help individuals, companies and organizations define specific role profiles for digital ways of working in the construction industry and measure stakeholder competencies against a target profile. For example, the platform can be used for recruitment, professional assessment, internal training, or determining the best educational path. In the context of higher education institutions, the application can also be used to identify educational needs in order to develop appropriate education and training programs. In summary: The platform is to be used, comparable to a search engine, for competence development and competence assurance in the field of digital planning, building and operating.
Users can take a test via the platform to determine their current level of competence in digital planning, building and operation. Based on a defined target profile, the platform creates an automated gap analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, and desired areas of education and training. The application is based on a knowledge base ("knowledge utility") created through data mining and artificial intelligence technologies to extract data points from resources such as current job descriptions, performance specifications, or the use case management platform (https://ucm.buildingsmart.org/) to create a database of digital competencies or define profiles for digital-based roles. The requirement profiles should be dynamically adaptable, e.g., to project- and country-specific definitions, in order to respond flexibly to evolving needs.
