Student bid competition winners rise to the challenge

The winners of the 2019 National Simulated Student Bid Competition said this year’s competition was a challenge, but the lessons they learned were invaluable.

The Construction Institute of Canada contest winners were announced at an awards gala in Toronto April 16.

The ML&SK Contractors team from George Brown College in Toronto, comprised of Troy Lawson, Nik Kopcalic, Matthew Marotta and Georgy Sheer, took home top honours, winning first place in both the closest to the target price and most accurate and complete bid categories.

“This has been the best learning experience we’ve had so far through the program and I highly recommend it,” said Marotta.

Through the bid competition, the students were exposed to real life situations, including last minute challenges that required a lot of work to be done in a short amount of time before the final bid submission.

“Changing the subcontractors, the addendum releases, last minute schedule changes, all of these were thrown at us the morning of our submission, so a lot of work that we had done up until that point had to be scrapped and redone,” explained Lawson.

Overall the team was pleased with the results.

“It’s an absolute honour,” said Kopcalic. “Coming in here we had high hopes to win an award but truly we did not have the expectation to come in first place. It’s a great feeling.”

This year’s project was Winnipeg Soccer North, a 162,000-square-foot facility located in the Garden City area of north Winnipeg. The design incorporates a full-size FIFA-approved pitch with 16 dressing rooms and a 360-degree spectator concourse that accommodates roughly 1,200 spectators.

ANGELA GISMONDI — The team of 2020 General Contractors won first place in the most professional bid category. The awards were presented by John Mollenhauer, president and CEO of the Toronto Construction Association, Craig Lesurf, honorary chair of the competition and Matthew Melaragno, CEO of this year’s competition.

Craig Lesurf, honorary chair of the competition, said learning real-life lessons is what the bid competition is all about. The contest gives students a glimpse of what they are going to face in the industry and the aim is to make them job-ready.

“There are a lot of rules and that’s deliberate,” said Lesurf, who is also vice-president and business group leader of Walsh Canada. “As an employer, what we look for in students are job-ready people and job-ready people have had real life experiences. That comes from things like the student bid competition.”

This year, seven schools from across Canada participated including the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, Centennial College, the British Columbia Institute of Technology, Ryerson University, Nova Scotia Community College, Humber College and George Brown College. While 74 teams registered, 65 teams, consisting of about 250 participants, actually submitted bids. Out of those, 46 were compliant.

“I wish the number was higher,” said Lesurf. “Why is it important for industry? In the industry if you don’t bid work, you don’t get work. It’s just a fundamental. Whether you’re the only bidder or there are multiple bids you still have to go through the motions of a bid.”

Matthew Melaragno, a fourth-year student at George Brown College and CEO of the 2019 competition, said the committee began working on facilitating the competition in November 2018.

“To say that this year has been a challenge would be an understatement, but through all the hard times there was an opportunity for growth and improvement,” said Melaragno. “This year, we introduced a three-phase closing submission, a completely revamped RFP document that replicates what the industry currently uses and a completely different project moving from a highrise hotel to a FIFA-approved soccer facility.”

He thanked all the competing teams.

“We as a committee know the struggles that you went through and the challenges that you faced,” said Melaragno, whose team competed in last year’s competition and formed this year’s executive. “We understand the difficulty of this competition and we are extremely impressed with all of the submissions. As difficult as the challenges that you faced may have been, they have all made you stronger students. They have taught you valuable skills in leadership, working in teams, meeting deadlines and managing multiple personalities in a group. All of these skills are vital to careers in the industry and their importance moving forward should not be understated.”

He also thanked the committee for their efforts and the mentorship of Compton Cho.

“Your ability to adapt, adjust and improvise when problems and challenges presented themselves was outstanding,” said Melaragno. “We started as a group of individuals but through pressure we were molded into a team and together we finished as friends.”

John Mollenhauer, president and CEO of the Toronto Construction Association, said the competition is a unique partnership between academia and the industry and provides hands-on experience that is not provided through many curriculums.

“It is important that industry and academia get together on a project like this to help students be work-ready, prepared to enter the workforce and making a meaningful contribution day one,” said Mollenhauer. “Something like the bid competition makes an overwhelming difference.”