2016 TCIC Simulated Student Bid Competition


Millennium Construction Group from left to right; Jonathan Kerr, Evan Hutley, Jonathan Shibley

New aspects in The Construction Institute of Canada’s (TCIC) National Simulated Student Bid Competition set the bar for students to gain real life bidding experience in order to be able to contribute immediately in the construction industry. 
The annual TCIC Simulated Student Bid Competition began on Monday, January 25, 2016. This yearly competition tests students from across Canada to tackle the construction bidding and estimating process. The concept is for teams from across Canada to submit complete bids based on a set of contract documents, which must contain quantity take offs for own forces work, a sub-trade analysis and selection, a construction schedule, obtain bonds from a surety, as well as calculate overhead costs, and develop a pricing summary.
This year over 70 teams, with 280 students from 7 post-secondary schools across Canada took part. Students had a two stage bidding process with an electronic bid submission using Infinite Source on the first day of closing, followed by a hard copy submission 24 hours later. The online surety and bonding system, Xenex, will be used for the second time in this year’s competition. 
This is the first year that the “building information modelling and innovation award” has been introduced. Students will be challenged to generate quantities from the model they create. BIM is growing in popularity throughout the industry, and can be used for many applications. TCIC is studying the use of BIM as it pertains to the estimation process.
Winners of the competition are presented with monetary awards, along with certificates for participation. The winners will be announced at a gala event held on Tuesday, April 12, 2016.