Mr. Errol Spence of Berkeley & Spence, Quantity Surveyors finished up the final semester of the first Construction Project Management Course held at Jamaica College in style. In two sessions of 3 hours each, the students were introduced to an overview of real estate development and how the building industry fits in with that section of the economy and specifically, the key role of the Quantity Surveyor and all that profession entails.

Thereafter, it was time for the 14 boys to go into action; put all their theory learned over the past year into practice for a 2-week practical stint during the summer holidays.

From July 10 to 21, under the close watch of GDL’s site supervisor, the boys – complete with hard hats and florescent vests – went on site at our New Harbour Village development in St. Catherine – really getting down to the ‘nuts and bolts’ of building homes and observing first-hand, “up close and personal”, exactly how a housing development comes into being.

GDL treated the boys to their daily lunch and transportation, and from all reports via the boys themselves – having now learned to cope with a “little dust and heat” – they undertook “an impressive and rigorous safety drill” for starters and definitely realised that safety on site is paramount and that “building a house is not as simple as it looks…on paper”…! In Team Leader David Rose’s own words: “Having seen plans of storm drainage, sewage and water mains already, gave us a good insight of ‘theory into practice’, as learned from our civil engineering sessions. If we could only have stayed another 2 or 3 weeks – such was the value of our time on site!”.

The JC boys went full steam ahead whilst enjoying the learning curve that actual work on site provided and as the final flourish to their already firm foundation of knowledge so generously provided by Jamaica’s professional experts in the construction sector over the last school year.