Teams from universities in Australia, the UK, Hong Kong and the US are among the first to sign up to compete in the CIOB’s new Global Student Challenge, an online construction business simulation game.
The competition kicks off in February, stretches over six rounds, and will see teams of four degree students attempt to navigate their way through a series of challenging tasks while acting as the board of directors of a virtual construction company.
But universities are being invited to register teams early so that students are able to familiarise themselves with the simulation software.
The Challenge uses Windows-based MERIT software, first developed at Loughborough University in 1988 to train young professionals as part of modules in their degree programmes. MERIT has also been widely used as a staff training tool, with more than 200 employers in the industry using the system.
The top six best-performing teams in the competition will be invited to go head to head at a final staged in the Far East in July 2014, with the CIOB covering the cost of flights and accommodation.
The overall winners will then be awarded places on a prestigious leadership development course where they will receive mentoring and assistance in their career development.
MERIT (Management Enterprise Risk Innovation and Teamwork) generates realistic scenarios of a construction company’s business markets and conditions. The challenge requires participating teams to work together to make important business and financial decisions using a mixture of strategic thinking, data analysis and insight, under time constraints.
Teams will be expected to use the MERIT simulation software
The role play covers tasks such as: bidding for work; staffing projects with project managers, labour and subcontractors; and making decisions on whether to disburse profits to shareholders or reinvest in the company.
Team members are assigned different managerial functions to help foster responsibility and team working, with the success or failure of the simulated company often dependant on effective interaction between the different roles.
Each team of four students in the Global Challenge will act as the virtual company’s board of directors and can appoint two local non-executives to mentor and advise, but not actively participate in the team’s decision making.
The non-executives must be under the age of 35, one being a local CIOB Novus member.
Registration for the CIOB Global Student Challenge runs until February 2014. It costs £295 per student team up to and including five teams, with a lower rate for subsequent teams from the same institution.
All teams are required to familiarise themselves with MERIT during a trial phase, which runs to January 2014, designed to help them explore the issues of the company and financial management, as well develop their initial strategy.
Commenting on the initiative, Alan Crane, past president of the CIOB, said: “Exposing students to the issues faced by company boards at an early stage in their development will alert them to the skills and knowledge required at board level and encourages them to acquire and develop these skills as early as possible.”
