Americans are eager to rebuild our infrastructure — the nation's schools, highways, bridges, dams, and transit systems that have been suffering from decades of neglect. But before any golden shovel photo-ops can take place, we must first invest and build our workforce to meet today's construction demands.
October is Careers in Construction Month, a time to celebrate the people who build our nation and reach out to the construction workers of the future.
Today, the construction industry employs about 7.5 million workers, and we have an estimated 500,000 jobs open this year. If we add a $1 trillion infrastructure bill into the equation, we could create an additional one million jobs. The demand for construction workers is high, and firms are anxiously looking to hire tomorrow's electricians, carpenters, welders, plumbers, HVAC specialists, and more.
Associated Builders and Contractors and its 70 chapters are doing their part to train construction professionals using innovative and flexible apprenticeship models like just-in-time task training, competency-based progression, work-based learning, and government-registered training to build a safe, skilled, and productive workforce.
But Washington can also help. President Trump and policymakers can help bridge the skills gap and shape the workforce of tomorrow in three ways.
First, they can recognize all apprenticeship models. The U.S. Department of Labor sets the regulations for registered apprenticeship programs, which define the standards and definitions of required competencies and skills. Government-defined apprenticeship programs play an important role in training, but this is only one training solution in the construction professional training ecosystem the industry deploys.
President Trump took a great first step when he signed an executive order expanding current apprenticeship models by inviting trade associations, companies, unions, and other stakeholders to the table to design the kinds of programs businesses need. Recognizing these high-quality, industry-recognized, competency-based apprenticeship programs will go a long way to bridge the skills gap and train the construction workforce we need today—and tomorrow to build our nations infrastructure.
Second, Washington can expand tuition assistance to those learning skilled trades. Skilled trades are a viable alternative to college for young students. Student aid could be expanded beyond the traditional four-year college model to give Americans better access to apprenticeship training programs that lead to industry recognized credentials and competencies which lead to a career as a construction professional.
Allowing tuition assistance programs like 529 plans to be used for industry-recognized apprenticeship training would help students who decide college is not for them to invest in acquiring skills and competencies through apprenticeship training and thus pursue a career in construction. Young students could look forward to a promising career path rather than dreading mounds of college debt.
Third, President Trump can increase opportunities for the construction workforce and ensure his infrastructure plan gets built by enhancing the conditions for competition and welcoming all construction companies to compete based on merit. We all know that competition promotes innovation and therefore benefits projects by delivering them faster, safer, at higher quality and ultimately at a lower cost. This is how you create value for the taxpayer.
President Trump should issue an Executive Order which welcomes every construction company and worker to build America. The Trump administration can first rescind an executive order issued in the Obama administration that gives the government the option of excluding 86 percent of the 7.5 million construction employee construction industry from building America.
With such tremendous demand in the marketplace, there has never been greater opportunity for those seeking a rewarding path in a skilled trade, where one can enter the workforce right away as an apprentice, get paid to learn career skills on the job, and even work their way up to owning their own business. A 2015 survey found construction professionals are the happiest employees in the workforce. Opportunity knocks for women, minorities, veterans, students, non-graduates, and people seeking new careers, reentry to the workforce, or a second chance for a well-paying career, not just another job that can be offshored.
Together, we can help build a safe, skilled, productive workforce that can become the time-tested foundation we need to build America.
