„We must adapt to the abilities of young people” – Market and BME are shaping the construction industry together

The construction industry is undergoing a historic transformation: digitalisation, BIM technology and sustainability requirements demand a new type of engineering expertise, which is why Hungary's market-leading construction company and the country's most prestigious technical university have entered into a long-term strategic cooperation agreement. The aim of the partnership between Market Építő Zrt. and Budapest University of Technology and Economics is to integrate market innovation directly into higher education, thus ensuring a supply of competitive professionals for the future.

Speakers at the event included Dr. Charaf Hassan, Rector of BME, Sándor Scheer, CEO of Market Építő Zrt., Zsolt Herencsár, Development Director of Market Építő Zrt., Dr Szabolcs Rózsa, Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering at BME, and DLA Tamás Varga, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at BME.

A win-win situation has been ratified

In his ceremonial speech, Charaf Hassan, Rector of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, emphasised that the university is not only valuable and successful on its own, but also thanks to its stable partnerships. „Our university's connection to the construction industry has been present since its foundation.

„It is up to us to decide what is included in our training, but of course this flexibility requires the right technology. We are now maximising this responsiveness through our collaboration with Market Építő Zrt.. The collaboration between Market and BME is therefore a real win-win situation.”

Knowledge transfer for real value creation

Sándor Scheer, CEO of Market Építő Zrt., expressed his delight at the collaboration on behalf of many of his colleagues who graduated from the university. „We have 171 colleagues who graduated as engineers from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. We are very focused on managing the education of young people as effectively as possible and getting the most out of this period.”

Our company is 30 years old, and over the decades we have gained a wealth of experience and come a long way, but of course this is not the end of the road; we are planning for the long term. Over the years, we have won many awards and worked for many clients. We have served numerous industries with our buildings, so we have accumulated a great deal of knowledge, which we not only try to preserve, but also work hard to put to good use.„

The goal of Market is always the same: to perform their work better and better every day. „The cooperation established today is based on long-term trust and partnership, and it is our intention to create real value by coordinating the knowledge we have accumulated and that held by BME. BME's expertise and research capabilities are perfectly complemented by our practical knowledge and decades of experience.”

As the CEO pointed out in his speech, „although construction is the least innovative industry, as the raw materials, for example, have not changed much over the centuries, the industry has undergone drastic changes over the past ten years. Nevertheless, we must recognise that construction is not attractive to young people today.

We must therefore make the construction industry appealing to young people who are open to it, and we must create opportunities for them to experience the wonderful feeling of creating something during their school years.

 

 

Zsolt Herencsár, development director at Market Építő Zrt., added that a change in competencies is needed, not only at universities but also in the construction industry. „We place great emphasis on talent management: we want students to clearly understand that if they perform well at university, they will succeed with their knowledge.

„According to the strategic agreement, we plan to jointly shape education: we will provide lecturers and venues for practical training, and we will also launch initiatives in the areas of research, development and innovation in order to put academic knowledge into practice,” he explained.

 

 

„It's a lifelong learning process" – Sándor Scheer to Magyar Építők

After the event, Sándor Scheer, CEO of Market Építő Zrt., gave an interview to Magyar Építők, where he drew attention to the changes of the past ten years and the generational change in response to our newspaper's question. As he said, in his opinion, three things are necessary for a construction company to be successful:

„I would put customer focus first. We need to build what the customer wants. I would put quality in second place, but I would also mention that our goal is to get more out of a task than what the customer asks for. Let's put the extra knowledge we have gained from our extensive experience into all our work. If all three are in place, it can create a very confident position for a construction company."

The construction industry has changed significantly over the past 10 years. „The world has become faster and customer requirements have become very complex. We see how complex factory buildings need to be today, especially in industrial projects. Due to digitalisation, the construction industry has also shifted its operations to the digital world. The proportions of the cost of a building have changed, with mechanical and low-voltage investments now much more significant than before. It is not easy to operate a building today, so it is also more difficult to build one.

If we do not keep up with the times and are unable to respond quickly to changes, we will quickly fall behind. We work for many foreign clients, construct complex buildings in numerous locations around the world, and recognise that the use of modern technologies is now an expectation.

We must constantly grow to meet the tasks entrusted to us; this is a lifelong learning process that also provides continuous internal momentum.”

 

 

The industry must be made attractive to young people

When we asked him what he expects from young people as the head of the company, Sándor Scheer said:

„We must accept that the new generation is different. We need to adapt to the abilities of young people – this is how we can better channel the knowledge and approach into processes that we do not have."

Our primary goal is to integrate young people into construction processes in such a way that they too can find something appealing for themselves. As a market leader, Market can serve as an example to many. This is a great responsibility, where, for example, our steps towards environmental awareness are highly valued.”

 

„We need to identify with this task," he noted. We took the approach that it is our duty to address ESG issues, particularly those related to environmental protection. We need to get our heads straight in order to have a real impact on environmental issues, and we need to pass this on to future generations. We have drawn up an action plan covering a million tiny details, and we have been working through it step by step for years. We know how much the world demands of us and how much our financial resources can bear, as environmental awareness generally results in more expensive solutions, but we are systematically progressing towards the ultimate goal of our plan, which is to become a climate-neutral construction company.

Being a market leader is a serious responsibility, and we must take many steps in our work that can serve as examples for our partners and competitors to follow. When we introduce something new, we are not only developing our own company, but the entire industry.