On October 25th the Construction Education Foundation (CEF) along with the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) hosted their annual Build Your Future Career Day. The event was held at North Lake College West and CEF’s DFW Training Center, which is a 60,000 sq ft facility that has a combination of Class Rooms and Labs on the DFW International Airport property. The purpose of the event is to help high school students who may be interested in learning about construction trades and inform them of what options are available within each craft. This event and show aligns closely with TEXOs Build Texas Proud! campaign and their desire to promote construction in North Texas as a great opportunity as a career choice and a way to build your future.
There were over 2000 students brought in from school districts around Dallas / Fort Worth, each of these schools selected from their own career training program a select group of interested and qualified students. I had the opportunity to speak with a number of these teachers and students during the day and came away with mostly good comments and questions about opportunities in the construction field.
I have written on this topic in the past, Build Texas Proud! High School Outreach. As we continue to experience a sever shortage in manpower and qualified craftsmen how does reaching out and helping to develop this talent benefit our community? At what point is the contact most important and where will we see the most impact for the effort provided high school or possibly middle school? Can a partnership be developed between the Student, Parent and School to help identify and guide potential students through high school and then provide them a construction job when they graduate.
One of the most important facets of a construction career day like Build Your Future is the students are able to see the representatives from the various craft companies and they will be able discuss which craft seems most in demand, what is your day going to be like, what kind of pay could be expected and where the benefits in construction lay.
In addition to the booths and equipment there were a number of competitions set up to show case various fields in the industry providing a hands on opportunity at doing the work.
There were numerous booths set up by General Contractors, Sub Contractors, Suppliers and Manufacturers each there to talk about their industry and where the jobs are and what benefits you would enjoy by working with them. They fielded a number of questions about their specific industry.
CEF was created as an alliance between the members of the Associated Builders and Contractors of America, the Associated General Contractors and the American Subcontractors Association and began around 1981. Its purpose and goal is to provide the construction industry with the most qualified technically trained people from Craft Workers to Supervisory level employees. The program has in place relationship with North Lake College to allow college credit for some of their courses.
TEXO is the largest commercial contractors association in Texas and is a blend of the Associated Builders and Contractors and the Associated General Contractors of America and is made up of over 300 commercial contractors who perform about 5 billion in work annually. Its primary focus is in 5 areas, Safety/Health and Environmental Issues/Skill-Craft workforce development/Professional Training and Education/Community and Networking Events.
The relationship between these two organizations allow for a harmonization between the development of a work force by CEF and a connection to the contractor membership that TEXO serves. By connecting each of these organizations with our future workforce by way of our high schools craft programs hopefully we will soon see the benefits and gains from programs like Build Your Future.
If you are in North Texas and are currently managing a high school career program and you would like to have a group come speak at your career fair you can reach out to me or TEXO and we can help facilitate the conversation.
Also if you have any ideas on how this type program has been successful to you or your organization I would like to hear about it. You can reach out to me directly by connecting on the link below.
Construction Daily 