Is the fundi working on your building trained?

Despite the sector's impressive growth, training of construction workers is wanting writes, ALLAN OLINGO

The multi-billion booming construction industry has seen universities and colleges churn out large numbers of professionals in the past five years, supplying the industry with greater numbers of architects, quantity surveyors and engineers among other professionals of the sector.

Charged with the mandate to oversee the design and construction of projects while acting as intermediaries between clients and builders, these professionals evolve to become contractors, sub-contractors or consultants for major construction sites.

However, little attention is being paid to match up the supply of builders, who make up the large chunk of the workforce in construction projects.

"Little attention is being paid to grow the labour force, which comprises informal labour made up of skilled lower cadre workers commonly known as fundis, creating a huge imbalance," says Stephen Okari, the Secretary General of Mafundi wa Kenya Association.

The association is a registered professional body representing individual artisans, craftsmen and technicians nationally.

In many developed countries, the construction sector is well structured with working mechanisms and policies but sadly, this is not the case in Kenya.

Fundis make up the backbone of the construction workers, Okari observes. Even with the imminent shortage of trained fundis, many contractors are still bent on cutting down their costs, opting on hiring quacks and non-professionals to widen their profit margins.

As this work force is a vital part of the broader construction community, individual skills upgrading at all levels need to take place simultaneously to match the demand for this type of workers.

To many of us, the Kenyan fundi could be anyone. That Form Four leaver trying to make use of his or her free time and make a few coins, a jobless old man trying to make ends meet or that ordinary Kenyan who has never set foot on any educational institution.

It’s a common sight walking by a construction site to find a group of men eagerly waiting to be given a day’s job. Some are spotted carrying construction tools in readiness for work, while others seek menial jobs.

This begs the question, are they trained for these jobs they seek? What criteria do contractors and sub-contractors use in hiring these fundis? What are the qualification requirements? Which institutions train the Kenyan fundis?

According Okari, even with the few trained artisans and craftsmen, contractors are left with no option but to hire quacks and untrained fundis as a result of the shortage. They gladly will do so to widen their profit margins thereby jeopardising the quality of structures built.

Accountability

"It’s a sad situation when almost 60 per cent of buildings in Kenya are built by people without basic technical training but rather claim to have learnt on the job from the various construction sites they have worked on before," he notes.

Okari adds that with this kind of workmanship, there is always a compromise on the quality of work done by the fundis.

It is also common knowledge that most of these individuals come to these sites for the quick money it provides and their commitment to the workmanship is limited to that.

Terms and conditions of their engagement are not defined and no proper contracts are signed when they are engaged for a week’s work.

"Contractors generally avoid issuing the workers with written contracts and registering them with relevant authorities in order to avoid additional costs associated with employing labour. Indeed, the evasion of these additional costs is often the motivation for outsourcing untrained and unskilled labour," said Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry in a report titled informal labour in the construction industry in Kenya.

Without contracts, these fundis are exposed to exploitation and have no medical covers against sickness and accidents that may occur at a construction site. Workman’s compensation insurance scheme are hardly taken by contractors to cushion these informal labourers in case of injury, and the same contractors have no contractual obligations holding them liable to do so.

Okari says it is wrong for the fundis to work under such conditions, but given the mode of hiring that is exhibited by most contractors, many fundis would rather not ask for contracts but chose to work on a day-to-day basis.

"Contractors avoid employing workers on contracts to beat the accountability measures within the labour laws and this opens avenues for exploitation and poor working conditions," notes Okari.

Harun Nyamboki, the developer of Moke Gardens, notes that most of the fundis masquerading as professionals do not have proper training and when engaged based on their word, it turns out to be expensive for the project because of repeat jobs and wastage of materials

"The fundis we engaged at Moke had to be qualified with masons required to have a minimum of grade three training. All the others had tohave technical qualifications in order to be hired," he said.

Nyamboki points out that at the initial stages, the construction was sub-contracted to firms who brought their own workers who included plumbers, builders, electricians, roof constructors, interior fixtures and fittings installers, painters and landscapers.

With current conversion of many technical institutions and polytechnics into satellite universities, less of these hands-on-workers are being trained.

Okari adds that at the moment, it is only Kenya Polytechnic that is still offering technical training for fundis. Other polytechnics that used to train masons and painters among other such skills are either run down or have been upgraded to colleges offering different curricular altogether.

It is from this dilemma and change in technology that many corporate companies within the construction and building sector are now coming in to train workers on how to use their products under their corporate social responsibility schemes.

Basco Paints, Bamburi Cement and East Africa Portland Cement are among the few companies that are training construction workers on usage of their products.

Basco Paints, for instance, started their Dura Coat Expert Training Centre a year ago to train painters on how to achieve the best paint job with their paints and pastes.

Mital Shah, a director at Basco Paints, notes that the centre was established with a view to empower the youth interested in painting as a profession.

Training centre

"We found it necessary to give back to the society through a process that will impact not only a few individuals but have a rippling economic effect," he adds.

Mital adds that painters trained at their facility have left the centre equipped for the market.

"Other than painting, students learn how to do a number of special effects and this means they leave with an edge far above the ordinary painter," he adds.

Trainees are taught on making job estimates, calculating the amount of paint required, factoring the labour component and the mark-up, something that technical training institutions don’t offer.

"The certificate offered after completion of training has opened doors for many previously unemployed painters who go ahead and land that previously elusive contract," adds Mital.

It is this training dilemma that has presented the construction industry as an elitist sector where many universities train the higher cadre of individuals leaving the lower cadre to survive on referrals from previous jobs.

Okari notes that this anomaly can be addressed through seminars and training for fundis.

"We offer training where basics are taught. The seminars serve as eye openers equipping them with skills ready for the industry," he adds.

Nyamboki, on the other hand, decries the poor pay of fundis noting that this acts as demotivation.

"When someone pays you a meagre Sh1,400 on a weekly basis, then there will be little incentive for them to work harder and this has largely contributed to the poor workmanship experienced in the industry," he adds.

The government then has the challenge of restoring sanity in this industry by reviving the role of technical training institutions offering such skills training.