Starting in July 2011, the DSC in collaboration with ODM: Dominica will deliver a series of Safer Building Courses to builders and contractors in Dominica. The Safer Buildings course is designed to train builders and contractors in the techniques for constructing safer residential buildings.
The course will be for 30 contact hours plus seven site visits. It will cover critical aspects of residential buildings including: roofs, walls, floors, foundations, pre-construction planning and post construction maintenance.
Local professionals with wide experience in the construction of safe residential buildings will facilitate the course. The facilitators were trained in instructional strategies in June this year at the DSC. Their professional training, experience and recently acquired skills in andragogy equip them for effective instructional delivery.
The material for the Safer Buildings Course was developed by the Caribbean Disaster & Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). CDEMA, with its secretariat in Barbados, is providing some financial and technical support to the DSC to ensure that good quality resources are available to deliver the course.
The rationale for this Safer Buildings Course is unquestionable. Dominica, like every other island in the Caribbean, is exposed, continuously, to hazards such as hurricanes. It behoves us, therefore, to ensure that we do all within our powers to make our buildings more resistant to natural hazards. This course will equip our builders and contractors with the required knowledge and skills to build safer residential buildings.
DSC and ODM, expects all builders and contractors to take full advantage of this course which will put them on par with other’s in the Caribbean where the same course is offered.
The course starts in July, 2011 and will run for five weeks, two nights per week, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. nightly.
A significant benefit of the Safer Buildings course, for successful participants, is the certification in the construction of Safer Buildings; hence making them more marketable in the construction industry.