HIGHWAYS ENGINEERS : DOES ANYBODY TRAIN OPERATORS ANY MORE ?

I was born and educated on the Dark Continent, I thought. 

Here in Asia, the people have amazing potential, but .......

Back to Africa : I worked in the construction industry in the public sector in the Cape Province. We controlled our daily construction using Production Indices , the Caterpillar Handbook was our Bible and controlled costs using a Standard Costing system. All plant had vibro / tacheo graphs. We knew exactly who did what.

To generate the Standard Costs we did extensive Work Study, I had a team of Work Study Officers, who studied all operations, then developed and tested optimized methods, which were the basis of the standard costs. 

But then we had to train the workforce in these methods. So I had a central Training School and Training Officers on each site. This was a time when South Africa was preparing to rid the country of the white Government and Apartheid. We performed literacy and numeracy testing on all workers and selected the best.

These people were trained as operators and works foremen / Works Managers as we preferred to call them. People wanted to learn; they grasped the opportunity and they were proud of their jobs. People who once used picks and shovels were operating bulldozers; road scrapers all sort of things. Even my office assistant was able to abandon his push bike for the office mini van.

We built roads : we built people. 

Then I came to Vietnam ....with "international" Contractors, using the cheapest local Sub Contractors.

Observing the works as a Consultant, I see ......

Poor skills; No Production Control; No proper Method Statements; No Construction Management ; Poor Quality Control Systems; No Quality Assurance ........ Cost Control ???

No one appears to care  .....  and it doesn't seem to matter ...

What's your experience ?

Or am I just an old fart remembering the good old ; glory days ?