Guest editorial: Embracing the future construction project lifecycle: education and training for construction 4.0

The construction industry is modernising and focussing on ensuring that its architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) workforce has the skills they need under the 4th Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) (Rahimian et al., 2021). The digitalisation of the construction industry is accelerating the development of multiple new tools to support workforce capacity and capability development in the built environment, including all phases of the building project lifecycle, from design and planning to construction and facility management stages (Goulding and Rahimian, 2012; Hajirasouli et al., 2023; Lee et al., 2022). There is a critical need to revolutionise workforce capability to improve the construction industry’s quality and productivity (Goulding and Rahimian, 2019) and take advantage of the possibilities of IR4.0 (Elghaish et al., 2022). The development of technological capability and human resource capacity must be specific to the needs of the built environment. Thus, construction 4.0 emerges as a concept to drive improvement of the overall quality of the workforce in the building sector, involving professional, technical, vocational and educational training, working skills, safety competency and organising competent labour in the AEC sector.