Educating construction managers

The speed with which the Construction Management (CM) system has entered the daily practices of the construction industry has caught educators in a lag. The management of construction and construction management were considered synonymous until construction management became a formal contracting system. Educators designed construction education programs around the needs of the general contractor and the requirements of the general contracting system. As CM became popular, educators began teaching the CM process but have not yet totally modified instructional programs to accommodate the unique requirements of construction managers. This paper establishes the differences between the educational requirements of a contracting-oriented program and a construction management-oriented program with respect to the management tools and the philosophy of those using the tools.