Annual CIOB competition sees Canadian team take the top spot.
A team from Toronto has won the fifth annual CIOB Global Student Challenge competition, facing a fiercely competitive international field.
The Stalwart Construction Group, from George Brown College, is the first Canadian team to make the finals. They collected their award from CIOB President Chris Soffe at his inaugural dinner in July, in one of his first official acts as President.
The winning team receives £2,000 in prize money, along with access to a unique mentoring programme, with industry leaders offering advice and guidance to support their professional development.
The final this year saw a number of familiar faces. Breaking the streak of Glasgow Caledonian University, after three victories in a row, the UK contingent still put on a good show.
A Cambridge University team, Cambridge University Revolutionary Building, came second for the second year in a row. The team from Loughborough University came third, placing strongly in the final for the second year running.
The other finalists were Sense4 from Chongqing University (China), Profiteer Projects from Curtin University (Australia) and Trojan Corporation (RMIT University, Australia).
The CIOB’s annual Global Student Challenge, which is open to full time students, is a real test of construction industry know-how, taking place in stages over a number of months. The competition provides a realistic simulation where teams, made up of three or four people, act as a Board of Directors running their own company.
More than 60 teams from universities all over the world entered the 2018 competition, with the six teams scoring the most in the early rounds being invited to the finals in Toronto as part of the CIOB’s annual Members’ Forum.
Chris Soffe, President of the CIOB, said: “The CIOB’s Global Student Challenge is all about pushing the strategic, financial and management skills of construction students to the limit.
“This year’s finalists more than met the challenges presented to them and impressed me greatly with their talent and commitment, as this is not a process for the faint hearted. It’s an excellent sign that the future of construction industry management is in good hands.”
Entry for the 2019 challenge will open later this year. To find out more about Global Student Challenge, visit http://gsc.ciob.org
