Grand Opening of the Monozukuri Training Center on April 3

The grand opening of the Monozukuri Training Center, a hands-on practical training center for young construction engineers at Shimizu Corporation (President: Kazuyuki Inoue), was held on April 3. The training center was built on the premises of Tokyo Mokkoujou Arts & Crafts Furnishings (in Kiba, Koto City). In the future, the training center will become a fully operational platform for training workers company-wide in monozukuri (craftsmanship) in architectural construction, facility construction, design, civil engineering, and administration and management to further improve the frontline skills of the entire Shimizu Group. The training center will also be used to train skilled workers for our subcontractors. The plan is to host over 6,000 trainees a year.

The chief characteristic of the training center is that it enables young trainees who are mainly construction engineers, to gain basic knowledge of framework construction, how to perform quality inspections, and other core aspects of monozukuri in construction through hands-on experience. The two-story, 940.53 m² training center contains life-sized structures for framework construction to provide practical training.

To be specific, the central section of the training facility has three zones that are equipped with rebar and formwork, steel frames and exteriors, and PCa (pre-cast). These replicate life-sized structural frameworks under construction. In the rebar and formwork zone, trainees perform actual quality inspections and learn more than 100 inspection points scattered throughout the reinforcement layout and formwork. In the steel frame and exteriors zone, trainees learn how to build the columns and beams of steel frames for different construction methods. In the PCa zone, trainees learn increasingly complex construction techniques for steel and concrete precast components.

Each zone also has a corner equipped with videos and display panels to explain structural technology. The wall has an exterior wall built of five types of exterior finishes as a teaching tool. An exhibition room has also been built on the first floor, which contains panels that shows the monozukuri process so trainees can see the points of construction techniques and construction management at a glance. It also displays the technologies developed by Shimizu and Shimizu’s track record in construction that should be passed down to the next generation. Trainees learn the technology and practical skills they will actually need in design and construction management through these life-sized mock-ups and exhibits.

To Shimizu, monozukuri is a vocation, and the passing on of technology and techniques form the core of our company. In order to make that core unshakeable, we strive to communicate the “spirit” and “techniques” of monozukuri that Shimizu has cultivated in the course of its 210-year plus history. We strive to develop engineers who are capable of thinking about and devising solutions to problems on their own, and who can pass on the vision of monozukuri in their expert knowledge and principles.