Transformation initiatives and empowerment are the only way to go to unlock the potential of the South African construction sector.
This is the view of Tracy-Lee Behr, the Portfolio Director for the Built Environment at dmg events. The company, which is hosting the 6th annual African Construction and Totally Concrete Expo, will be running a series of complimentary educational sessions alongside the event.
While Africa’s infrastructure gap is expected to cost more than $30 billion over the next two decades Behr believes the business and development opportunities are immense. However, she explains, “Industry growth is best achieved with empowerment, knowledge sharing and skills development. The best way to support transformation initiatives is to offer education that is free and accessible to all.”
Underprivileged groups, small contractors, and architects operating in Africa’s built environment will take centre stage at the African Construction and Totally Concrete Expo 2018.
“The keynote and training sessions are tailored to address the industry’s current challenges, finally supporting job creation in South Africa,” Behr adds.
Training programmes
African Construction and Totally Concrete Expo’s free education programme includes:
- The Keynote Session, powered by Captains of Construction & Infrastructure and the National African Federation for the Building Industry.
- The Transformation Corner, powered by the National African Federation for the Building Industry, which will unpack the amended construction sector codes and provide practical case studies in support of transformation initiatives.
- The Architectural Essentials Corner, powered by the South African Institute of Building Design, providing CPD hours and progressive learning for architectural professionals.
- The Contractors’ Corner, dedicated to small to medium-sized contractors.
- The Demo Corner, featuring technical demonstrations and interactive training from leading industry suppliers.
- The Concrete Corner, catering to users and specifiers of concrete and concrete related products.
- The Digital Innovation Lounge, offering practical advice on how to adopt disruptive technologies in the construction industry
The event will run on 16 and 17 May at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburg. To register and attend for free, visit www.totallyconcrete.co.za.
Within the healthcare sector in general, ‘big data’ is the buzzword when it comes to analytics. It allows healthcare workers to identify important health trends and make decisions based on these findings.
Griffiths says these analysis techniques are used to identify potentially infectious diseases by examining outbreaks in other parts of the world. These findings are then used to identify potential cases in their own patients, aiding early detection.
“One of the key positive spin-offs of implementing an EMR is the big data and analytics that can be used to make ongoing strategic health decisions. This potential for this data to be used as a platform to leverage other technologies such as home care, artificial intelligence and blockchain is almost unlimited,” says Griffiths.
“Big data also plays a key role in nursing education. She says informatics skills are being taught in light of the importance of big data and analytics which in the nursing context is mainly focused on epidemiology, statistics and population health research,” points out Brownie.
She stresses the importance for educators to stay current and to keep up with trends. “Educators need to be active in continuous review and update of curricula and all teaching learning materials to ensure they are contemporary and forward thinking on technological matters.”
Both Brownie and Griffiths will be sharing their experiences at the Nursing Conference that will take place at the Africa Health Exhibition & Congress from the 29-31 May 2018 at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand.
