A  team of construction industry students from Galway’s Atlantic Technological University (ATU) have won the Chartered Institute of Building Ireland’s (CIOB) coveted Tomorrow’s Leaders Challenge.

The Galway team, comprising Liam McDonagh, Kenneth Hynes, Kara Earle and Simon O’Grady fought off competition from four other teams in the competition, which was held on November 22 at Thomond Park in Limerick.

Second place was awarded to a team from ATU Donegal while third place went to the competition’s first ever all-female team, who were from ATU Sligo.

The challenge required the teams to develop a bid submission for a design-and-build scheme of four industrial units on a greenfield site. Their submissions had to include a layout for the units, a risk register for the project, a master programme for the construction phase, and a cost schedule. Each team had four hours to complete the task following which they had to submit a report, present their project to a panel of judges and respond to questions.

The head judge was Derek Cassidy FCIOB, Chair of CIOB’s ROI Hub.

Derek said: “Our congratulations to the Galway team who have demonstrated a high level of skill and professionalism to win the challenge. All our finalists represent the construction industry’s future leaders, who we’re sure will go on to have very successful careers.

“Improving quality and access to education and skills is crucial for ensuring a sufficient pipeline of educated, qualified and professional workers who are passionate about working in Ireland’s built environment. At CIOB we’re committed to playing our part in developing tomorrow’s leaders and hope this latest event has inspired many of them.”

On receiving the news they’d won the competition, Kenneth Hynes from the ATU Galway team said: “We would like to thank the CIOB for putting together such an amazing competition giving students the opportunity to work in multi-disciplinary teams.  All teams in the competition were incredibly professional in their approach and it was an amazing experience that will stay with us forever. We would also like to thank ATU Galway and all of our lecturers for giving us the chance and for the hard work they have put in over the years.”

Construction Leadership Challenge