An Evaluation of Factors for Retaining Hispanic Students in Undergraduate Construction Programs

9 pages•Published: June 9, 2021

Mohammadreza Ostadalimakhmalbaf, Mohammadmehdi Danesh, Edelmiro Escamilla, Boshra Karimi and Manish Dixit

Abstract

The number of Hispanic workers in the construction industry is more than any other industry in US, but they are under-represented in management position. In an attempt to grow the number of Hispanic construction managers, there should first be a growth in Hispanics obtaining construction science degrees. Retention of Hispanic students who could be the future construction professionals is a problem in Construction education. The objective of this study was to explore which of the factors reported by the literature, have the strongest positive effect on Hispanic students in undergraduate construction education programs. In order to identify which factors, have the strongest impact to assist undergraduate construction programs in determining where best to focus retention strategies to enhance Hispanic student success, this study employed the Delphi method. The results of the study showed that “financial aid”, “academic advising”, and “mentoring programs” were the topmost important factors. Additionally, it was found that “Construction-related student organizations” as the least important retention factor on the list. Research in the area of Hispanics in construction education is limited. This study can serve as a basis for future research in Hispanic students’ retention.

Keyphrases: construction education, construction industry, hispanics, retention, workforce development.

In: Tom Leathem, Anthony Perrenoud and Wesley Collins (editors). ASC 2021. 57th Annual Associated Schools of Construction International Conference, vol 2, pages 533-541.

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/xLBS
	https://doi.org/10.29007/hln5

BibTeX entry

@inproceedings{ASC2021:Evaluation_Factors_Retaining_Hispanic,
  author    = {Mohammadreza Ostadalimakhmalbaf and Mohammadmehdi Danesh and Edelmiro Escamilla and Boshra Karimi and Manish Dixit},
  title     = {An Evaluation of Factors for Retaining Hispanic Students in Undergraduate Construction Programs},
  booktitle = {ASC 2021. 57th Annual Associated Schools of Construction International Conference},
  editor    = {Tom Leathem and Anthony Perrenoud and Wesley Collins},
  series    = {EPiC Series in Built Environment},
  volume    = {2},
  publisher = {EasyChair},
  bibsource = {EasyChair, https://easychair.org},
  issn      = {2632-881X},
  url       = {/publications/paper/xLBS},
  doi       = {10.29007/hln5},
  pages     = {533-541},
  year      = {2021}}

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