Organisation
Byggeringen is governed by a Board consisting of industry executives and university professors elected for 2-year terms by the annual membership meeting.
The student association plays an integral role on the Board, not only contributing personnel but also infusing the work with their enthusiasm and dedication.
The Board sets the strategy and policy of Byggeringen and appoints a general manager with broad industry experience to run the day-to-day activities.
Byggeringen is funded by the members who contribute annually an amount based on the number of employees ranging from NOK 20 000 (2600 Euro) to NOK 100 000 (13000 Euro) creating an annual budget of approximately NOK 3 000 000 (385 000 Euro). The members also make considerable contributions through voluntary work in the projects and other activities.
Membership
At the launch in 1999 altogether 47 entities joined Byggeringen. The members came from all branches of the industry, including contractors, consultants, suppliers, research institutes, branch associations and public services. The membership has been growing in the later years and today there are about 60 company members and although the larger companies tend to carry the heavier load there is still encouraging support from small and medium size units who would otherwise find it difficult to be active in this kind of work.
Projects
An important driver behind the initiative to launch Byggeringen was to deal with an alarming and recent decline in the number of bright students wishing to enter the university to study civil engineering.
- Other projects, some of which have been concluded to make room for new priorities, include:
- Visualizing an exciting construction industry to high school students, stimulating their interest in technology
- Informing high school students of the opportunities, diversity and job prospects in the construction industry
- Taking care of the new students, helping them to settle in at the university and avoiding dropouts
- Offering every student, a relevant job during summer vacation
- Examine the content of the university courses and coordinate the academic ideas with the needs of the industry with respect to research and development and the demands for new technology. In this context the Board of Byggeringen has recently taken on the function of jointly managing the content of the entire civil engineering curriculum.
- The challenge of recruiting more females to the civil engineering profession is also a high priority task for Byggeringen. The current percentage of females in the Civil Engineering Department is about 40.
All the above projects are staffed by volunteers from industry and from the university, and their progress is monitored by the Board and reported to the annual membership meeting. This meeting is arranged in conjunction with a generally well attended “Open Day” at the university, which aims to stimulate dialogue between university, industry, and students.
Byggeringen has proven itself a viable partnership of benefit to the construction industry, the Department of Civil Engineering at NTNU, and the students.
Activities can be monitored on the Byggeringen website: http://www.naringslivsringen.no/
