Wanted: Construction Workers

California firms set out to recruit, retain qualified candidates

By Robert Carlsen

Faced with a severe manpower shortage now and in the future, the construction industry is not sitting around or keeping retirement-minded baby boomers on the job.

Recruiting new blood is today's mantra for construction firms.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the construction industry will need one million new workers in the next six years and 2.4 million by 2014.

And with construction associations and unions offering scholarships and firms participating heavily in career days at universities across the country, the race to find and retain the best qualified engineer and design students has become extremely competitive.

In a white paper prepared by McGraw-Hill Construction and Engineering News-Record magazine entitled "Solving the Construction Industry Work Force Crisis: Ideas for Action," a panel of experts says that filling these jobs will be particularly problematic due to the gap between industry needs and education trends.

The National Center for Construction Education and Research, a Gainsville, Fla.-based nonprofit education foundation created to help address the critical workforce shortage facing the construction industry, says that 65 percent of construction industry jobs require an associate degree or advanced training, but only about 32 percent of high school freshmen plan to attain that level of education.

The McGraw-Hill/Engineering News-Record panel says that ways to improve the construction industry image with students is to encourage college credit programs, advocate for vocational training in secondary schools, and fund grants and research and development programs to improve the image of construction in academia.

It also suggests investing in youth-friendly speakers and math and science programs.

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Similarly, the Associated General Contractors' Building Futures Council latest white paper, "The War for Talent," calls the construction industry's image "wanting." In the white paper, Jack Chiaverini, a former executive with Perini Inc., says that "we are the world's worst marketers to the outside world."

The council recommends that A/E/C companies make succession and leadership development planning a strategic priority; be open to change (shifting away from old approaches of talent management in the face of demographic and marketplace challenges); build their brands via word-of-mouth; and establish recruiting, training and development programs that fit the company culture.

In California, construction firms and associations are moving steadily ahead with a wealth of proactive recruitment programs.

The California Coalition for Construction in the Classroom was formed in 1998 to promote the construction industry as a career option to parents, students, teachers and school administrators. The nonprofit CCCC is made up of 80 of the largest construction and building trade associations - including AGC, representing 15,000 businesses.

Its goal is to address the "critical shortage of workforce that was inadvertently caused by the systematic dismantling of vocational and career technical education over the past 20 years," according to Adrienne Monroe, executive director of the CCCC and the AGC-CA's Construction Education & Research Foundation.

She adds that what's even more alarming is the fact that 30 percent of California students who enter ninth grade do not graduate from high school.

Monroe says CCCC wants to recreate a qualified workforce by exposing students to what vocational and technical education programs have to offer and to boost the number of teachers in those fields.

"College may not be for everyone," she says.

CCCC is backing at least two state Senate bills this year that could help revitalize the workforce. SB52, sponsored by Sen. Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, would amend the state education code to make it easier to attain a teaching credential in vocational education and career technical education, and SB15, sponsored by Sen. Mark Wyman, R-Carlsbad, would also amend the education code with the forming of a Career Technical Education Vision Council that would make recommendations to the Legislature about technical education, including a statewide uniform curriculum.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has initially endorsed the funding of the council.

CCCC is also a sponsor of the California version of the annual, national Construction Career Awareness Day, run by the CCERF and hosted by the AGC, National Association of Women in Construction, the Federal Highway Administration and, in California, Caltrans.

Last year, Teichert Construction hosted 1,400 high school students at its Sacramento headquarters. Monroe says that attendees were able to test out some heavy equipment firsthand at the event.

This year's event will be held April 20 at Granite Construction's Sacramento office, and more than 1,600 students are expected.

Meanwhile, Denise Ramirez, education and website specialist at the Engineering and Utility Contractors Association, says her group is orchestrating a number of workforce-related programs to promote the industry to students.

They include utilizing in-house streaming video technology at www.euca.com to present career opportunities; sponsorship of the EUCA University Program, which features visits to elementary and high schools to educate students about engineering careers; development of a course on project management career advancement, which allows company owners/leaders to nominate individuals in their company to prepare for a career as a project manager; and this year's awarding of 10 $2,500 scholarships to EUCA Affiliate members and California college students majoring in civil engineering or construction management.

EUCA is awarding an additional scholarship distributed by D.W. Young Construction Co, Inc. of Alamo in honor of Dave Young, a past president of EUCA. Ramirez says the memorial scholarship will offer $1,500 to a student majoring in civil engineering or construction management.