This study is aimed to examine ways in which technical staff in architecture department of technical colleges can provide better support in the future. In order to reveal the current condition and issues of technical support provided by technical staff in architecture department, a survey was conduct among 12 staff in architecture department and 12 technical staff in civil engineering department of technical college. Interviews were also conducted for 12 staff in architecture department and 5 technical staff in civil engineering department to obtain further details.
The findings obtained are as follows:
1. About half of the technical staff in architecture department are aged between 40s to 60s, or nearing age for retirement. Further, as staff members work in fields throughout the country, there is normally only one person assigned to provide support within the department so that any continued exchange between staff members have proved to be difficult. Hence, an information sharing system should be built to enable better communication between technical staff.
2. Technical staff in architecture department must provide support for various areas of architectural study besides experiments/training in engineering. Compared to engineering experiments and training where machinery used, procedures, and solutions are all clearly defined, architectural design is less specified, making the technical side harder to comprehend. Hence, the staff members reported experiencing difficulty when having to provide technical support to architectural designing projects. This was reflected in the higher number of negative response when these staff members were asked if they felt their "skills were fully utilized" or "self-worth fulfilled".
3. It was found that many of the technical staff in architecture department who had to provide support in lessons of architectural design are certified second class architects. However, more than half of them were unable to utilize knowledge and skills of such qualification when providing technical support. It is important to allow them to apply knowledge and skills gained in the course of qualifying as an architect when providing technical support so that they may sustain such ability. Future discussion is needed to find a more appropriate method of providing technical support to architectural design.
