Last week, BATC manned a booth at the Minnesota School Counselors Association annual conference. This is the third year in a row at which we’ve presented construction career opportunities to counselors, with the goal of having them recommend our industry and its opportunities to their students.
The school counselor effort, combined with our annual Job and Career Fair sponsored by The Builders Group and Lyman Lumber Co., are two key elements in BATC’s workforce development program. More efforts are in the works.
About six months ago, BATC brought together at our offices some 15 associations and organizations to discuss the labor shortage and determine the value of working together. Then, last month, The Builders Group (TBG), followed up BATC’s initial effort, bringing together construction associations under its new Education Foundation. This exciting initiative, which we’re calling Construct Minnesota, resulted in two committees.
The first is the Workforce Development Marketing Committee, chaired by BATC Executive Director David Siegel. The goal here is to research what messaging will entice young folks and their parents to view careers in our industry positively, and then launch a multi-year marketing campaign leveraging all the associations and their various channels to grow our workforce. The second committee, The Education Committee, will inventory all current workforce training programs and build bridges between the educational efforts and members in need of employees.
Kudos to TBG for its efforts. Under its auspices, we have both residential and commercial, nonunion and union organizations working together to share the vision of construction as a great place to work.
Lastly, to help coordinate with the Construct Minnesota effort, BATC is forming a Workforce Development Committee. If you have interest in serving on the Workforce Development Committee, please contact BATC Executive Director David Siegel at david@batc.org.
