Building The Next Workforce
Employers and educators are creating a new pipeline for skilled labor
By Robin K. Cooper / Albany Business Review / Aug. 19, 2021
Paige Womble doesn’t want to be a doctor.
She cannot get excited about a career in science or nursing or firefighting, and it is not because the schoolwork is too hard for her.
The 17-year-old Stillwater High School student, who finished her junior year with a 99.4 average, found her calling during a car ride when her mom asked if she would consider architecture.
“The more I learned about architecture, the more I realized there is a lot of art and a lot of math, two of the subjects I enjoy most,” Paige Womble said.
Now, she is spending the summer before her senior year learning how estimators, executives, designers and project managers do their job at Gilbane Building Co., one of the largest general contractors in the United States.
“For every Paige that we can develop that wants to get into architecture or construction, we are building a network that can help us find four or five more,” said Keith Leal, area manager for Gilbane in Albany.
As the United States emerges from the pandemic, it is forcing colleges, employers, high schools and parents to think differently when it comes to building a workforce of the future.
America faced a shortage of welders, carpenters, electricians, machinists and pipefitters well before Covid-19 became part of our daily conversations. The shortfall is driven largely by changing demographics in the United States with more people raising smaller families as baby boomers retire at a pace of 1.5 million to 2.5 million per year. Last year, that number jumped to 3.2 million, according to Pew Research Center.
As we rebound from the pandemic and fight to overcome workforce and supply chain shortages, an urgency is fueling efforts to create a bigger skilled labor pipeline to help the United States avoid a projected shortfall of one million construction jobs over the next two years and 2.1 million manufacturing positions by 2030.
“If we don’t change direction, we are going to be just like every other college in our area. We will be doing what all of the others are doing,” said Roger Ramsammy, president of Hudson Valley Community College in Troy.
That philosophy is the backdrop of Hudson Valley’s strategy for investing $12.5 million to expand and renovate its satellite campus in Malta to train more students for careers in nursing, welding, construction and computer chip manufacturing.
Ramsammy also is pushing for federal and state money to help the college construct a $70 million Applied Technology Education Center on its main campus capable of producing 4,877 technicians over the next decade.
Three years after taking over as president of the Troy college, Ramsammy is determined to build a path for students that is less about pouring concrete and more about the promise of a better life through a career in the trades.
The college has a 68-year history with a heavy focus on vocational and technology education. Many of the region’s nurses, dental hygienists and funeral directors are graduates of Hudson Valley. With so many employers facing labor shortages, the school is pushing its efforts to a new level.
And the shift is occurring even though Ramsammy and his staff know it would be easier and less expensive if Hudson Valley churned out more graduates with liberal arts and business degrees.
The total cost to the school for producing a graduate with an associate degree in liberal arts was about $21,200 two years ago. Meanwhile, the overall cost for turning out a graduate with an associate degree in construction technology was $31,100. The cost of a graduate with a nursing degree was $38,400.
Annual tuition and fees, which amount to about $5,000 a year, cover a fraction of the total cost.
Ramsammy and the school’s deans have begun working directly with employers, churches, refugees, high schools and middle schools to create programs leading to careers in welding, heating and cooling, plumbing, electrical construction, as well as electric and autonomous vehicle repairs.
“We need to get to kids earlier, while they are still in middle school when they have not made decisions about their future,” said Penny Hill, dean of economic development and workforce initiatives. “It is up to us to reach more kids and show them these are not dirty jobs, it is a path to a career that could be dynamic.”
Momentum is growing in school halls and principals’ offices to erase the mindset that a bachelor’s degree is the only ticket to a well-paying, white-collar job and a better life. To make that happen, more educators are listening to employers who have been pushing to remove the stigma of blue-collar careers and earning a living by working with your hands.
The need to change is not lost on Stillwater Central Schools superintendent Patricia Morris.
“There are a lot of misconceptions around the trades. It’s not just a hammer and nails. It is a career, not a job,” Morris said. “We need to work harder to find more opportunities for all students. It is everyone from the kid who doesn’t know what they want to do, to the kid with a four-year degree who doesn’t know what to do with it.”
She is part of a workforce development task force made up of builders, teachers, guidance counselors and lumber suppliers searching for ways to attract more young people to careers in the trades.
Working with the task force prompted Morris to question school practices that have been the norm for decades. A prime example cropped up over the winter when Morris wondered why Siena College and other four-year schools recruit on high school campuses but general contractors, electricians and home builders do not.
That is exactly the mindset that fellow task force members Doug Ford, a vice president for Curtis Lumber, and Pam Stott, executive assistant at Curtis, are looking for.
The task force emerged from discussions three or four years ago as members of the Saratoga Builders Association became worried about the lack of skilled labor.
“Every month, all we were doing was complaining,” Ford said. “No one was doing anything about it.”
That is when Stott started talking to school principals and superintendents around the region, which has led to job shadowing opportunities with construction companies, architecture firms and Curtis Lumber to introduce students to potential careers.
“Our goal isn’t just about bringing more kids into construction,” said Matt Whitbeck, who runs Whitbeck Construction with his brother, Jason. “We want to help them find a career they can be passionate about.”
The industry also pays well, Whitbeck said. When he started 16 years ago, entry-level pay was $8 an hour. Today, he has 18-year-olds fresh out of high school who are earning $18 an hour. And many of his employees make $50,000 to $80,000 a year.
“None of my employees are driving jalopies and living paycheck to paycheck,” Whitbeck said. “And there is always a path to move up.”
This summer, he is working with Sheridan Wheeler, a 16-year-old student from Saratoga Springs High School, who wants to pursue a career in architecture.
Wheeler is learning about everything from concrete foundation work to beam replacement and staircase construction as Whitbeck renovates a three-story Dutch colonial house on Clark Street in Saratoga Springs that was built in the 1800s. The project will be the focus of an episode of reality TV show “This Old House” early next year.
That experience in many ways mirrors the opportunities Paige Womble, the incoming senior at Stillwater High, is having while working with staff at Gilbane Building Co.
Womble had a chance to work with a team that was helping a client pick an architecture firm for an upcoming construction project. Womble also has visited Gilbane construction sites at the University at Albany. And she was asked to sit in on planning meetings for construction jobs that may not happen for a couple more years.
“We never had opportunities like that when I was in school,” said Rachel Womble, Paige’s mom. “I don’t think we have to have our lives all figured out by the time we are 18. But if students are thinking about going to a four-year school and taking on a lot of debt, it is good to be prepared.”
Published: Fri, 20 Aug 2021 12:00:46 +0000 by d.gardner