Condos, townhomes, roads, and other developments are constantly taking shape around us. Whether sprawling residential structures or large-scale infrastructure projects, we’re accustomed to seeing workers in hard hats and steel-toe boots in our neighbourhoods. But beyond these visible workers, the construction industry in Ontario has many moving parts.
One significant area is project management (PM). These professionals ensure work is delivered efficiently, on budget, and on schedule because when millions of dollars are involved, avoiding costly mistakes becomes a top priority. It’s a field that requires a unique skill set, combining building code and best practices with project management techniques.
Let’s take a look at three frequently asked questions that will give you a better idea of what it takes to manage building the structures that make up our cities.
What Are the Common Construction Project Management Duties?
PM duties start at ideation and end at the project’s completion stage. With the main goal of delivering on time and on (or under) budget, professionals in this line of work address a number of concerns, such as cost control, scheduling, procurement, and risk assessment. This involves interacting with a wide range of team members, from architects to contractors.
What someone in the PM field does will vary by job title. Roles include project manager, coordinator, estimator, site manager, and inspector. Overall, anyone who wants a career in this sector must be prepared to participate in the four core processes that keep projects running smoothly. These procedures include ideation and research, during which stakeholders scrutinize every part of a build for applicable regulations, as well as risk, return on investment, and a number of other factors. Once the project is settled, PMs define and plan timelines, required resources, budget, and key performance indicators. Then, it’s time to determine roles and responsibilities. Finally, construction project management duties turn to execution, which requires doing what is needed to keep the processes that were coordinated during the first three phases on track until the end.
What Construction Project Manager Skills Are Needed?
If you want to gain the skills you need for success in this field, Centennial College has you covered. The one-year Construction Project Management graduate certificate program provides technical and business training with an added focus on protecting the environment and sustainability. The curriculum includes relevant information systems, scheduling, procurement, legal documents and contracts, cost estimation, analysis, and safety. Throughout the program’s courses, you will gain the skills to stand out, such as leadership, communication, organization, risk management, negotiation, financial management, and building code knowledge, and safety.
Centennial’s courses are accredited by the Gold Seal Certification Program. When graduates combine these training credits with the required post-graduate experience, they can apply for Gold Seal certification, a nationally recognized standard of excellence for professionals in this sector.
What’s the Outlook of the Construction Industry in Ontario?
Did you know that 588,000 people in Ontario are employed in this industry? That’s 7.6 per cent of the province’s total workforce. Employment is expected to grow moderately from 2023 to 2025. With investments in infrastructure and population growth driving the industry, the need to recruit skilled workers to meet industry needs will increase, according to JobBank Canada. What’s more, an expected wave of recruitment is expected to replace an aging workforce. Beyond residential builds, projects in transportation, nuclear refurbishment, and other infrastructure and institutional projects will contribute to growth.
Ontario’s building industry is concentrated in the Toronto region, which accounts for just over 41 per cent of the province’s total employment in this sector. That makes the city an excellent place to gain in-demand construction project manager skills and launch a career.
By: Izabela Shubair