We know that large and complex projects now have to be done in BIM. But are we prepared for this training side and where is the added value of experience?
The article is based on a business talk between Dr. Attila Breznay, business strategist and coach, and Csaba Livják, founder and CEO of BuildEXT. The full conversation can be listened to on this page or on the most popular podcast apps.
Let’s cut to the chase: young people coming out of higher education enter the labour market with a strong career vision, a sufficiently arrogant approach, and a fundamentally false view of the world. It doesn’t sound very good. Yet if I have to choose between training a young and inexperienced newcomer to BIM or a 50-year-old but experienced and skilled designer, I will almost certainly start with a newcomer.
Why?


Because the role of architects will change completely in the next 10-20 years, and it’s simply easier to adapt to it if you don’t have bad habits and bad habits.
What can higher education do?
The education system, especially the Hungarian education system, is a subject of eternal criticism, but let’s be fair: the virtual construction industry has become so complex that it is simply not possible to prepare architects for it with traditional education. Today, we can do amazing and complex things with specific parameters in 80-100 different software systems, from generative design to parametric design, and we are constantly seeing new paradigm-shifting solutions with drone technology, laserscanning, and automated results. This is impossible to achieve through traditional higher education – but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth taking steps to solve the problem.
As soon as possible, the education system should direct young people to market firms where there is a demand for well-defined and specific knowledge that responds to real market needs.
The university learning material is far from up-to-date, but to be honest, it has no chance: it takes 2-3 years for a specific area of knowledge to be included in the curriculum and another year or two to be taught to the student in, say, the second or third year.
Even with the best will and the smoothest processes, it takes five years to learn what you need today.
Architects need to be released into the real world as soon as possible after their initial training or given the specific knowledge that the market really needs, in a parallel course
It does also matter the how
We also have to accept the fact that Generation Y requires a completely different approach to performing than what we were used to 20-30 years ago. More precisely, what was given to us at the time.
YouTube, TED, and the many influencers have made the market for performers incredibly broad and exciting. As a result, members of this generation have been socialized from a very young age to receive the best presentations from the best speakers, presented in the best possible way, in the areas that interest them most. It’s much harder for them to concentrate on a topic, and it’s no use having a highly professional university lecturer if the way or content of the lecture doesn’t hold their attention. They have become used to a quality of performance that is compact, interesting, funny, and attention-grabbing – even if this cannot be said (especially in terms of content) for the vast majority of videos that are also freely available on the internet. If they don’t get that, they won’t really respond to 40-45 minutes of content.
There is a huge potential for improvement in the transformation of education, to which the emergence of the coronavirus could add a new dynamic. Together with digital education, we can create channels to create awareness so that, in addition to basic knowledge, construction professionals and university students can have access to well-edited videos in Hungarian within 10 days, putting the topic in context.
Simply to keep up with the technology that is constantly taking over from the traditional and which is forming the new basis of the construction industry.
What can the market do?
Of course, as competitive players, we might speak more easily. We are open and adaptive, our company culture is start-up based and we place a strong emphasis on an agile and lean-approach. When a new solution appears on the market, we quickly process it and train it in-house with our internal training system, even within a week. This, and the global positioning of BuildEXT, has an interesting consequence.


We have an increasing number of colleagues who have recently moved home from abroad for various reasons.
And they bring with them technical knowledge, professional experience, and approach from all over the world, which are also essential for development. We diversify, we grow, and sometimes we are amazed at how much new, valuable knowledge we have acquired in 1-2 years as a result of this self-expanding process.
Making this specific knowledge available to our competitors in the market and to the rest of the vertical is another matter. What we are seeing at the moment is that for the few Hungarian architects who embrace the BIM approach and technology, the domestic market will not be the main source of revenue. The education and training of Hungarian operators is therefore not a competitive disadvantage for us.
We at least want to get there, and very quickly.