Building competitive advantage: Construction education in Japan

Abstract

This paper examines the way the Japanese education system strategically channels talent towards its elite universities, turning out a high proportion of engineers and architects for the construction industry. At the same time, it provides limited education for construction workers and technicians in public vocational institutes and technical colleges, preferring to turn out a highly educated workforce of generalists who are trained for specific jobs by employers through the training centres of large firms, private vocational institutes, or on-the-job training by smaller subcontractors.