Licensing construction workforce

Purpose – The paper aims to describe the challenges faced by a developing country (case of Indonesia) in the effort to improve the quality of national construction industry through “certification” requirement for professionals and skilled labors. It also aims to identify root problems and propose a recommendation for rethinking the “certification” systems. Indonesia's experiences can be regarded as lessons learned by other developing countries struggling to strengthen their construction industries.Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on an exploratory study including a focus group discussion with stakeholders representing the various professional associations, construction company associations (contractors and consultants), the Ministry of Manpower, and the Ministry of Public Works. An analysis based on the findings about implementation issues of “certification” requirement resulted in the identification of the root problems and the recommendation for restructuring the system.Findings – The pa...