Technical Human Capital Obsolescence and Age Relationship in the Building Construction Industry: A case of Nigeria (Published)
The Building Construction Industry (BCI) is among the businesses that depend on the agility and viability of the workforce. Consequently, it invests heavenly in the development of employees’ knowledge and skills, otherwise known as human capital. However, individual’s human capital is bound to deteriorate owning to atrophy (nonuse of skills) and inevitable changes, which could be as a result of ageing process, wear, injuries, and/or illnesses, in the individual. This deterioration is known technical human capital obsolescence. Thus, using descriptive study, this paper investigates technical human capital obsolescence in the BCI and its relationship with workers’ aging. Three research questions guided the study and questionnaire was administered to 387 randomly selected BCI workers. 278 questionnaires representing 71.83 percent were successfully completed and returned. The data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, Pearson Correlation Coefficient, Kruskal-Wallis H test statistics and SPSS software. The findings indicate, among other things, that, individual’s technical obsolescence due to wear is not a function of age. It is recommended that the industry and her workers intermittently evaluate their skills with the view of finding the specific obsolescence and providing measure(s) to alleviate its effects in the industry.
Keywords: : Human Capital, Industry, Nigeria, Technical, age relationship, building construction, obsolescence