A practical approach to teaching emerging technologies: a case of BIM

Purpose – In the present technological revolution era, lack of skills and training has been a critical challenge. Beyond this, there is less attention paid to how these skills should be delivered. Critically so is that of building information modelling as it affects the adoptions in the construction industry, which has been referred to as a game changer in terms of efficiency and productivity. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative approach was adopted, and a structured questionnaire was distributed to construction industry professionals. A total of 183 responses were collected and analysed to identify the effective and practical approaches to building information modelling (BIM) training for the construction industry. Findings – The study ranked the most significant approaches and also clustered the approaches in order to provide a better understanding of the approaches. Two clusters were divided through a factor analysis of the approaches. The two clusters focus on pedagogy attributes and assessment attributes. Originality/value – This study provides insight into an area that researchers have given less attention to before now. It, therefore, provides a critical point of call for industry practitioners and stakeholders in this area, which has been a source of concern. It helps in advancing BIM diffusion through training and informing targeted policies for effective training for emerging technologies.