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£2,000 prize for student construction firm competition

Illustration: Denis Carrier

Students who are judged to be running the best virtual construction company could win a £2,000 prize with the launch of the Chartered Institute of Building’s Global Student Challenge 2020.

The competition is now open for registration, with more than 20 teams already signed up from eight countries and four continents.

University teams wishing to compete should register now as the first stage of the game starts 27 January.

Since 2014, the competition has challenged built environment students to run their own virtual construction company, with the leaders after six weeks of competition given the chance to compete in finals that attract talent from around the world.

In the seventh year of the competition, the CIOB is seeking teams of full-time students studying either a Higher National Diploma (HND) or Bachelor’s degree in the built environment.

The winning team will receive £2,000 in prize money, along with access to a unique mentoring programme with industry leaders offering advice and guidance to support the winning teams’ professional development.

“The Global Student Challenge is a wonderful opportunity for those taking their first steps into a built environment career to demonstrate the skills they’ve acquired and their capabilities with strategic thinking and high-level decision making,” said Caroline Gumble, CEO of the CIOB.

“It’s also a great chance to get valuable experience in navigating through project scenarios that mirror what can happen on site in the real world. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how the challenge plays out next year.”

In the first phase beginning later in January, competitors learn how to play the game: running a virtual construction company, testing out different strategies and refining tactics for the later stages. According to the CIOB, based on performance in previous years, teams who do well in the competition are the ones who make the most of this stage.

In later phases the stakes rise as teams play competitively with other teams around the world, making decisions that influence the success of their companies.

More than 60 teams entered the 2019 competition, with the six teams scoring the most in the early rounds being invited to the finals as part of the CIOB’s annual Member’s Forum. In 2020 both events will once again be run alongside each other, this year in Sydney, Australia.

The competition is only open to full-time students, although there is an allowance of one postgraduate member per team. Teams are normally made up of four members, but three is permissible. Costs for entry are listed online – for more information or to register, visit the Global Student Challenge web site here.

In 2019 the winning team was from Universitas Indonesia, the first ever Indonesian team to make the finals. Read about the other finalists here.

Global Student Challenge 2020 timeline: