BE&K turns to women to solve million worker shortfall in construction industry, Solutions!, Online Exclusives, September 2005, Vol. 88(9)

A group of girls learn to weld at BE&K’s Girls Construction Camp.

A labor crisis is looming in the construction industry. Skilled craftsmen have become so scarce that the industry will be short one million craft workers over the next four years, say industry experts.

The quality of craft workers is diminishing too as the shortage grows. "There appears to be a two-tiered labor market in the crafts," says Hans VanWinkle, director of the Construction Industry Institute, Austin, Texas. Older, experienced workers with strong community ties comprise one group, he says. The other group consists mostly of low-skill transient workers. There is a significant gap in the professionalism of the two groups, says VanWinkle.

The construction industry faces the daunting double hurdle of a worker shortage and widespread, negative misinformation about employment opportunities. "There is a lack of understanding of the construction profession. Construction isn’t glorified on television and there doesn’t seem to be much opportunity to learn about craftwork in school," says VanWinkle. The only possible solution to this problem is to directly address its root cause, ignorance. "Information is going to be the first line of attack," he says.

The industry must diversify its workforce to find the massive number of workers needed to fill the gap, says Edward Gibson, Professor and Austin Industries Endowed Faculty Fellow, University of Texas, Austin. "We are not going to have enough white males to fill all of the slots," he says. The industry has a bad reputation and women and minorities are not entering it at a fast enough pace, he says. "There is no short term solution for the labor shortage. The only way to get people is to be proactive. We need to sell the industry," says Gibson. "It must be an honest sale, though. We need examples of women and minorities who have succeeded to be role models."

Both men agree that the incorporation of women into the labor force will be crucial for the resolution of this crisis because they currently are so badly underrepresented. Women currently comprise a meager 7% of the skilled labor force. "The diversity of skill trades is abysmal," says Mauricio Velasquez, president and CEO of the Diversity Training Group, Herndon, Virginia.

Public perception is the reason for lack of diversity in the skilled trades, says Velasquez. "Women would go into the field if they knew about the jobs that are available and felt welcome and prepared," he says. Women are beginning to enter the field, but the rate is still too slow, he says. "This problem won’t go away by ignoring it, you have to do something about it," he says.

Some forces are at play to begin the push for diversity, says Velasquez. Owners are starting to pressure contractors to increase their diversity. The current construction boom has seen a noticeable increase in contractual diversity demands, he says. "The heath care industry is leading the charge of pressuring contractors," says Velasquez. Health care companies rely heavily on their local communities for financial success and are sensitive to the need to build good will. They want the economic windfall of their construction projects to reach the entire community to facilitate the building of that good will. The federal government is the other major force driving diversification, says Velasquez. Federally owned projects increasingly are bid with diversity requirements, as government agencies are holding contractors to the same diversity rules that govern them.

BE&K takes a lead
Some construction companies are trying to address the issue, says Velasquez. BE&K of Birmingham, Ala., has taken the lead in addressing diversity. The company has co-sponsored craft schools through local school systems and runs a summer camp for girls to encourage them to sign up for the programs. "This is a lighthouse project. They are going full bore into getting the word out. We need more leadership like BE&K to prime the pump for female workers," says Velasquez.

Randy Evans, BE&K vice president of construction, headed the effort to establish the trade school and the girls’ summer camp. The idea for partnerships with the area schools came to him about six years ago while pondering the labor shortage. BE&K established its first trade school, known as the BE&K School of Industrial Construction, in conjunction with the Shelby County School District, Birmingham. BE&K funded the program and provided the facilities needed for several years until the district was able to procure state money. In 2000, Jefferson County School District, the other major county school system of Birmingham, created a craft skill program of their own in conjunction with BE&K. Jefferson County had more resources immediately available to give the program a home at the Shades Valley Technical Academy.

The girls receive one day of intensive safety instruction
and then weld, wire and hammer for two days.High school students enroll in the two-year craft school program along with their traditional course load. Anyone completing the program is offered a job by BE&K, says Evans.

"Construction has a bad image, but once the parents and kids find out about the money, benefits, and opportunities available in skilled labor, they become very excited," he says. Approximately 40% of the kids who complete the program go to work for BE&K after graduation, he says. These high school graduates can make $22,000 their first year. "To build on the two years of craft training they receive in high school, we like the kids to come and train for two more years, which raises them to journeyman status. They then easily can earn $40,000 to $65,000 per year at only 20 or 21 years of age," says Evans.

Even with the availability of large paychecks, new workers are hardly flocking to the construction industry. The labor shortage will not be resolved until construction becomes socially acceptable again, says Nancy Eaton, Head of the National Association of Women in Construction. "The problem is that construction is the last industry that anyone ever looks at," she says. The effort to change this perception must happen at the PTA level for both genders, says Eaton. "Parents and teachers need to know that construction is a good and viable career path." The educational system will be central to fixing the shortage. School systems need to be encouraged to devote more funding to vocational education and training, she says. "There is a resistance because they don’t see the importance of putting their money towards these programs," says Eaton. "BE&K should be commended for taking the bull by the horns and spending the money, but why should they be spending money to do what our educational system should be doing," she says.

Mike Goodrich, chairman and CEO of BE&K, doesn’t believe his company can wait for someone else to solve the problem. "We need skilled workers now. We understand the barriers to women entering the construction industry, and we are committed to lowering those barriers," he says.

Some educators agree with Eaton that the blame lies within the educational system. "Counselors tend to discourage kids from going into construction because their frame of reference is purely that of school," says Beverly Lavender, director of career technical education for Jefferson County School District. Parents, teachers, and counselors need to be educated about trade skills, she says. BE&K’s efforts have made inroads in the information battle. "The camp has heightened the awareness of the technical schools among many groups, including the counselors," says Lavender. The yearly summer camps have spread the word of the craft programs throughout the community, and even nationally, with great efficiency because it generates significant media attention, she says.

Eaton predicts that BE&K will see a return on its investment. The time and money lost trying to find and train skilled labor is impacting bottom lines throughout the industry. "BE&K is beginning to employ trained people through these programs who can start at higher pay rates, provide better quality work, and are more loyal employees," she says. The ability of the trade school students to go to work immediately on a job site more than offsets the cost of the higher wages BE&K has decided to pay, says Eaton. BE&K also receives a higher rate of return on its employee training costs because the company’s willingness to pay higher wages improves employee retention, she says.

Setting up camp
BE&K further invested in its future labor force by founding the Girl’s Construction Camp to complement the two BE&K Schools of Industrial Construction. The company held the first camp in the summer of 2001 to encourage the enrollment of female students in the craft programs. Evans says he started the camp to improve local awareness of the construction industry among women and to bring girls into the craft school. "There is a general lack of knowledge that construction is a good option for women," says Evans. "But we show them in concrete ways that it is. The camp instructors and volunteers are BE&K female employees, the guest speakers are women, and even the camp helpers are girls who have come back from the previous year’s camp," he says. "Giving the girls successful role models is an important aspect of the camp."

Evans’ desire to recruit women to the construction industry has personal and professional roots. "My mother, wife, and daughter all work construction. I grew up on a farm where we all worked as equals," he says. Woman will be an integral element in resolving the labor shortage because they represent 50% of the labor pool but only account for 7% of the crafts workforce, he says. Women are the most underrepresented group and thus have the most potential for growth. "It’s not a race or gender issue, the industry needs people. All people can work construction," says Evans. A rise in the female presence also would benefit the male workers, he says. BE&K strongly supports the placement of husband-wife teams on the same job. "Craft requires a great deal of travel and working on the same job helps to maintain family continuity," he says.

BE&K’s Girls Construction Camp shows promise as an avenue for the recruitment of women into the construction industry. It actively encourages girls to sign up for the trade school and, in doing so, puts the word on the street that there is a place for women in construction, says Evans. The free camp runs for four days and is open to girls entering their first, second or third years of high school. The girls receive one day of intensive safety instruction and then weld, wire and hammer for two days. The fourth day is a fieldtrip to a BE&K worksite. The number of slots is limited to thirty girls per camp to ensure that the girls have a safe, quality experience, says Evans. The approach of quality assurance seems to be working to bolster interest, as the camp is now receiving far more applicants than they can accept. "I see more interest in the camp every year," says Evans. "The time has come to push this program onto a national stage. If we really want to address the labor shortage, we need to grow the program by recruiting other companies and organizations to partner with us," he says.

Translating camp participation into trade school participation has been slow going thus far. "I would like to see more girls get involved with the school and come work for us," says Evans. But the investment in the camp is starting now to pay off tangibly. After attending the Girls Construction Camp in the summer of 2004, two girls just completed the first year of the Jefferson County training program in the spring of 2005. The girls, Charetta Oledibe and Sheldra Gaddis, have taken on the burden of setting a precedent for other female students in the 5th year of the Jefferson County program. The accomplishment of these two students is a major step forward for the program as they are the first girls to complete a full year of the training in either county. Their electrical instructor at the Shades Valley Technical Academy, Robert Humber, says that although Charetta and Sheldra are the only girls in a class of 35 students, their performance is solid. "Either one of these girls can go toe-to-toe with the boys in the class," says Humber. "They are not just learning skills, they are learning to navigate a predominantly male environment, which can be a real barrier for women in construction," he said. Humber says that an unexpected benefit of having girls in his class is that the boys are learning to respect girls who pursue traditionally male vocations. Both girls have enrolled again for the fall of 2005 with the intention of completing the two-year curriculum.

The girls will be seniors at Erwin High School next year. They see the craft industry as a means to achieve their very different career paths. Charetta, 16, has always been interested in the sciences. The summer camp piqued her interest in construction and engineering, prompting her to enrolled in the BE&K school. Her exposure to electrical work has sent her down a path towards becoming an electrical engineer, she says. "After high school, I want to work for a year for BE&K to earn money for college, and then take classes part time to get my electrical engineering degree, then hopefully come back and work for BE&K as an engineer," she says. Another option for Charetta would be to go to school part time and participate in BE&K’s tuition reimbursement program for employees, says Evans. Charetta, who also competes regionally in beauty pageants, seems to revel in her atypical career path. "I freak people out during the (pageant) interviews when I tell them about what I’m learning in school," she says with grin.

Sheldra also views craftwork as a means to an end, albeit a very different end. Her ultimate goal is to become a child advocacy lawyer. She knows that the seven years of school needed to become an attorney will be expensive. Her family does not have the money to pay for her college, meaning that she would either need to work or take loans. Gaining proficiency in a trade skill during high school will provide her with the earning potential necessary to pay for college and part of law school, she says. Without the craft skill set, "I would probably be working fast food," she says.

Spreading the word
Sheldra has spread the word about the camp and the school. "I signed my cousin up for the camp and the school and I’m going to sign my sister up when she’s old enough," she says. Charetta says that she has been telling her friends about the camp. The girls have found that everyone they talk to about construction shares a common moment of shock when they learn one particular detail of the job, "the money." Most people don’t know that so much money can be made working construction, they say.

Brittany, a 16-year-old upcoming junior at Clay-Chalkville High School, says that she will not be attending the school but thoroughly enjoyed the camp. "It made me feel that women can do anything men can," she says. "I learned that construction is not just a bunch of sweaty men. The camp showed me that we need to break the stereotypes and overcome gender issues," she says.

This year’s summer camp faced a major obstacle that probably would have caused its cancellation without the passion and persistence of Sheldra and Charetta. The woman responsible for the camp in previous years, BE&K Training Manager Diane Quimby, was recently in a serious car accident from which she is recovering still. The execution of the camp fell to Mittie Cannon, current training manager for BE&K. "I was unsure that I would be able to take on the camp because my schedule was already overbooked," says Cannon. Sheldra and Charetta repeatedly called her, asking her to hold the camp, promising to volunteer as student-instructors in return. Cannon agreed to take on the project-an excellent decision, she says. "It was also important to me to honor the work of Diane Quimby. Her pioneering efforts in launching the Girls Construction Camp are clearly evident in all aspects of the camp today," says Cannon. Quimby, herself a former master carpenter, viewed the camp video at a recent NAWIC meeting. She states, "This is important work; in fact, it’s bigger than all of us. It’s not an understatement to say that programs like this could change the face of construction."

The camp, like the industry, still needs better all around communication, says Cannon. The dispersal of information about the camp from BE&K to the girls and their families has, in the past, had a weak link that hindered the process, she says. Increasing post-camp communication with the girls is already in the works, with the first post-camp meeting held mid-July. This should improve the success rate of the camp, she says. "We need to maintain the relationships so that we don’t lose the rapport we’ve established during the course of the camp," says Cannon. Sustaining the interest of the girls throughout the year is important for converting interest sparked by the camp into a fall enrollment in the craft school, she says. Cannon also wants to track the girls out of personal interest. "I want to keep in contact with the girls who enroll in the school and see where it takes them."

Michael Powers is a writer for the engineering and construction industry.