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Veterans in the ACS program get in-the-field experience practicing on a tower structure.

EXPAND ENGAGEMENT to improve your EMPLOYEE PIPELINE

Girls Can is an annual construction camp that introduces skilled trades to 8th to 10th grade female students. These students learn about welding at the camp held at Shelby County (Ala.) Career Technical Educational Center. Photo Credit: Ivana Hrynkiw

Tips to rejuvenate workforce development in 2020

There’s a lot more to recruiting and retaining a strong talent pool than participating in a job fair or posting an ad to a job board. Although those are both essential activities, here’s a deeper dive to attract young people entering the market, retraining workers, and holding on to the ones you’ve got.

Successful workforce development programs are like any other organizational initiative that depends on engagement, believes Katrina Kersch, COO of NCCER. “They need to be continually reinvented and refreshed. In fact, established programs should be annually evaluated for effectiveness,” she says. Among the areas Kersch suggests employers should look are how your marketing and communications plans supports your efforts, whether employees are recognized and rewarded, and if frontline supervisors are committed to promoting development opportunities. Good technical skills curriculum is only component to a thriving program. “Long-term success is determined by the supporting framework,” she says.

Lucy Perry operates WordSkills Editorial Services in Kansas City, Missouri. She can be reached at wordskillseditor@gmail.com.

Build partnerships with schools According to data from the Associated General Contractors, its members are playing a more active role with schools to interest young people in construction. “There are fewer people getting exposed to construction careers and the pursuit of them these days,” says Brian Turmail, vice president of public affairs and strategic initiatives. “Steel erection requires a lot more skills than other types of labor, so it’s particularly important for firms to realize they’re going to have to do a lot more to train and prepare workers.” Facing this issue head-on, contractors are getting knee-deep into academics, he says. “They’re not just showing up for career fairs, but helping organize them at construction sites or training facilities. They’re lending materials and allowing staff to come in and provide high-level

instruction in a classroom setting.” It takes innovation to attract an expanding pool of workers, he continues. “Companies are realizing recruiting isn’t just putting an ad in the paper or showing up for career day. You’ve got to get involved with the schools, and educate and train.”

Ford Next Generation Learning (NGL) guides a collaborative network of communities to advance student, community, and workforce success through education and workforce solutions. Ford NGL's primary solution is development of high school career academies using the Ford NGL framework. Cheryl Carrier, executive director, says employers are eager to engage at the secondary level in meaningful ways with local school districts and secondary-level students. “Ford NGL helps employers get connected with school districts so they can attach to teachers and students in career academies.” In these academies, “students work on authentic projects with employers for three years. They better understand the field, they get to work with employers to understand the skills, attitudes, and mindsets they need to be successful in that career field. It helps them prepare themselves for the next stage, whether they go into the workforce with certifications or go on to college.”

Even if your steel erection company is not in a location where Ford NGL academies exist (see map at fordngl.com/data), employers can learn from this model. Seek to become a strategic business partner with your local school district or community college.

According to a recent survey by the Association for Career and Technical Education of more than 900 career and tech education leaders, industry relationships are a top priority for 98 percent of them. Yet, more than half of them feel they need a better understanding of how to structure, develop and grow effective partnerships. Among the biggest challenges for both educators and industry is lack of time to establish these relationships. The other obstacle is that employers report safety and liability concerns in engaging students under the age of 18 in work-based learning.

Ford NGL suggests considering your engagement with educators and students on a continuum. Low intensity activities include being classroom speakers, participating in industry advisory councils or offering curriculum review. Mid-level career prep includes job shadowing or teacher externships. The most involved activities for student career application are internships, apprenticeships, or challenge-based projects. Visit fordnglu. com/ppme-webinar-sign-up/ to learn more and access resources to develop powerful employer/education partnerships.

Employers that allow students to engage in summer internships or job-shadow experiences, or pay for certifications, “are building their own talent development pipeline,” says Carrier. Meanwhile, Carrier reminds employers to not forget about teachers. “Teachers don’t always know what exactly is involved in the world of construction work and craft trades,” she says, suggesting that industry bring teachers to a jobsite, to spend time understanding the skills needed and how to use geometry, algebra, and science on the job. That arms teachers to go back and have conversations with students about the potential for careers in the construction field, says Carrier.

Know your audience

Just as industry/academic partnerships are about more than just students, marketing to close the skills gap means reaching different audiences. Build Your Future (BYF), a recruitment initiative established by NCCER, recently published a Research & Marketing Playbook to give the construction industry tips for effectively reach parents and influencers, as well as students. “If a parent thinks that the industry is unsafe and dead end, they likely won’t support their child’s decision. In

67.73%

54.92%

48.51%

32.49%

23.31%

21.44%

11.82% ACTE ASKED CTE LEADERS: What barriers do you face in developing business/industry partnerships?

Lack of time to develop partner... Partners are nervous about... Partners lack time/ resources... Lack of funding to support... Limited number of employers in my... Few industries in my commun.... Other (please specify)

ANSWER CHOICES RESPONSES Lack of time to develop partnerships 67.73% 613 Partners are nervous about safety/liability for work-based learning 54.92% 497 Partnes lack time/resources to engage 48.51% 439 Lack of funding to support partnerships 32.49% 294 Limited number of employers in my community 23.31% 211 Few industries in my community/lack of breadth across industry sectors 21.44% 194 Other (please specify) 11.82% 107 Credit: ACTE, 2019 Report Addressing the Workforce Shortage through Strong Partnerships

THE WORK-BASED LEARNING CONTINUUM

What does strengthening your involvement with schools look like in a continuum?

CAREER AWARENESS & EXPLORATION

Learning ABOUT the Company & Careers CAREER PREP CAREER APPLICATION

Learning WITH the Company Application IN the Company

Classroom Speakers Roundtable Discussions Speednetworking Industry/ Advisory Council Curriculum Review Job Shadow Reverse Job Shadow Worksite Tour Teacher Team Externship Capstone Experience Student Internship Student Apprenticeship

LOW INTENSITY MODERATE INTENSITY HIGH INTENSITY

©2018, Ford Motor Company Fund

Besides the ideas already posed, here are few more for steel erection contractors to implement in 2020.

Ironworker Skills Institute is an evolution of a training and education partnership Garrison Steel developed. Interested students can download an application at garrisonsteel.com/jobs

recruitment efforts, it is also critically important to change the perceptions of a student’s ‘influencers.’ An influencer is anyone who guides a student when they are choosing their career path,” says Kersch.

NCCER identified four important pieces of information for contractors to consider in their recruiting efforts:

1. Different messages are needed to influence students versus parents when it comes to changing perceptions about construction careers.

2. Playful and emotional messages—as opposed to rational messages—in social media and digital advertising increase engagement faster.

3. Pay to play is a must. Spending money on Google Ads, programmatic marketing and social media advertising is essential to see a significant difference in your efforts.

4. Utilizing specific keywords on your website and in your content is crucial in targeting (or reaching) parents looking for careers for their children.

Download the Playbook at NCCER.org/news-research/research.

Expand your talent pool

Students should not be a steel construction contractor’s sole focus, says Turmail of AGC. Employers must step out of their professional recruiting zone and target groups of people who they might not have considered in the past. Women, convicted felons, under-skilled workers, or military veterans are other sources.

“The construction industry is only 9% female. The jobsite culture needs to become more welcoming to women who are looking for flexibility in their career—they may need flex schedules or job-sharing situations,” says Turmail. This year, AGC is launching a program called Culture of Care which encourages member construction firms to create a more welcoming environment.

Placing people coming out of the criminal justice system is another untapped

1. Build out an events calendar and schedule community engagement around these events.

February: CTE Month

acteonline.org/why-cte/cte-awareness/cte-month/

March: Women in Construction Week nawic.org/nawic/WICWeek.asp

September: Steel Day, Sept. 25, 2020 aisc.org/steelday/

October: Careers in Construction Month byf.org/cicm/

2. Identify clear career pathways inside your organization, not only for entry level workers, but for the growth and retention of your middle level employees.

3.

4.

5. Advocate for career and tech education programs, says Ford NGL's Cheryl Carrier. "These kinds of programs get students excited about career opportunities they may not have considered, and work that that contractors need to have done. (Visit ISupportCTE.org to support increased funding for CTE curriculum.)

Support state or local skills development programs, such as SkillsUSA or ACE Mentor Program of America.

Connect with your local school district. Ask educators what problems they face, what projects there are working on, then match those needs with the resources you have. That might be equipment, tools or leftover building supplies, or it might be speakers or mentors.

6. Get familiar with The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V), in particular grant funding that might be available in your state for development and implementation of career and technical education programs. Work with the state education department and the school to determine how your resources might meet their needs. ( cte.ed.gov/)

7. Rethink your HR department to train staff on strategic workforce planning, empowering workers as mentors or coaches, and techniques for talent acquisition. Resources at Human Capital Institute ( hci.org) and Society for Human Resources Management ( shrm.org).

opportunity. At the 2019 Construction Career Pathways Conference hosted by NCCER in December in Anaheim, Calif., panelist John Easley shared the success of training inmates in Louisiana for reentry into society. Easley currently serves as the Program Consultant for the Re-entry Craft and Technical education programs at Louisiana State Penitentiary. He was the Louisiana Community & Technical College System (LCTCS) Career & Technical Education Director until his retirement in 2009, where he also served as the LCTCS’s NCCER Sponsor Representative and is an NCCER Master Trainer.

According to Louisiana DPS&C, skills training and employment readiness are major components of successful offender reentry. At the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, highly-skilled offender mentors are utilized to enhance the training development in automotive and construction training classes to assist non-skilled offenders in attaining an Industry-Based Certification (IBC) in their chosen field of training. Certifications through NCCER and the Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) are offered to offenders as they complete the training program to assist the offender in attaining employment after release. Other components of the program include a partnership with a theological seminary designed to enhance social and quality-of-life skills, the ability to earn college credit in vocational-technical fields, and access to Pell Grant funding. Strategies for employers looking to hire ex-offenders can be found at csgjusticecenter.org/nrrc/ reentry-and-employment/. Another sector of potentially successful long-term employees are military veterans. “They’re in serious demand,” says Turmail. “The bigger challenge with veterans is finding them to hire. Firms are realizing veterans have high career success rates and are often already working on a career path in construction. Companies are looking for better ways to recruit them.”

SEAA member Adaptive Construction Solutions, Houston, Texas, has successfully tapped this segment with training, and key social and emotional supports needed by veterans. The company sponsors employer-centric apprenticeships that can be designed to meet various needs of employers and apprentices. Programs can be time-based, competency-based, or a hybrid of the two.

Dan Swiggum, business development manager at ATS Specialized Training in Sun Prairie, Wis., says construction should also look to industries that have suffered job losses, where workers need retraining to find new careers. This is an issue in the coal industry, as well as in agriculture, he says. In Wisconsin, for example, some $1.5 million has been set aside to retrain people who’ve lost their farms there, says Swiggum. “The state says ‘we’ll train you to do construction’ if that’s their chosen field.” •

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