Trade group offers online 'virtual apprenticeships' to
potential workers.
After years in the doldrums, Pennsylvania's highway
construction industry is rebounding to the point where at least one trade
organization is recruiting prospective workers with online "virtual
apprenticeships."
The Constructors Association of Western Pennsylvania
"identified a principal threat to the industry: a future skilled
construction workforce shortage," according to Rich Barcaskey, executive
director of the association, which represents more than 200 companies in 33
counties.
The trend also is occurring in eastern Pennsylvania,
although a Philadelphia-based spokesman for the regional group did not return
telephone calls.
The reason is clear: Act 89, a transportation funding
measure the state Legislature approved last year, provided a large boost to the
statewide highway construction industry, which had been in decline since the
end of the federal stimulus program in 2011.
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According to the Pennsylvania Highway Information
Association, the new road-building revenue has already begun to find its way to
contractors. The state Department of Transportation had bid $959 million in
projects through the end of May, compared with $576 million the year before,
the group reported.
Though any chronic labor shortage is not so much immediate
but anticipated in the relatively near future, the constructors association is
working proactively to generate interest in road- and bridge-building careers,
said Jason Koss, the association's director of industrial relations.
"It's not an immediate hit, but there's going to be a
lot of demand for these skilled laborers" and related jobs, Koss said.
The booming pipeline and natural-gas extraction industries
are sapping some of the labor capacity away, he said.
Looking to the future, "We wanted to come up with a
dynamic tool to recruit for the industry — one that will attract younger people
to our industry," Koss said, in part cashing in on the popularity of
computer games.
Toward that end, Constructors Association of Western
Pennsylvania launched the Future Road Builders website a few months ago,
offering a kind of virtual apprenticeship in specialized areas of road
construction, ranging from skilled labor to "operating engineers," or
those who run today's electronics-laden heavy equipment controls.
Using a link from the association's website at cawp.org,
applicants answer questions intended to assess whether construction would be a
viable job choice for them, including whether they appreciate working outside,
are bothered by extremes of temperature or are afraid of heights. Willingness
to travel is assessed in an industry where job sites often "move
around" and workers are forced to follow.
After the questions, a virtual highway project unfolds in
graphics, some with links to video showing actual operations in the industry,
taking users through the many stages of construction, from the clearing of a
site to project completion. The goal is to earn 4,000 hours of virtual apprentice
time in a matter of minutes, to help visitors decide whether to seek a union
apprenticeship as an operating engineer, carpenter, laborer, teamster, cement
mason or pile driver.
Those who complete the "apprenticeship" receive
email certificates of completion, which conceivably could help applicants
attain the real thing, at least in a small way, according to Koss. The
certificate could signal to employers that the applicant "had the interest
and put forth the time" to complete the program, and that "this
individual has the understanding of what they're getting into," he said.
The program seems popular in the early going, Koss said
Wednesday: "I can tell you within the past 24 hours we had over 100
completions."
Lehigh Valley Contractors Association Executive Director Jim
Davis said his group's members generally tend to specialize more in building
construction than road or bridge work, but he expressed interest in the virtual
apprenticeship concept.
"I like the concept," he said, "I'm going to
bring it up" with members.
A study commissioned by the Associated Pennsylvania
Constructors estimates that Act 89 funding saved 12,000 jobs and will create
50,000 more, including 20,000 to 25,000 in the highway construction industry.
Those figures recently were cited by Mike Rebert, district executive for
PennDOT's Allentown-based District 5.
"There will be a need for more people in the industry,
no doubt about it," the APC's Robert Latham said.
The construction industry "offers well-paying jobs and
opportunities for advancement, but many misunderstand it as being unskilled and
a dead-end career choice," Barcaskey of the CAWP said.
Future Road Builders, Koss added, "is not an immediate
[solution], but it is providing that recruitment component and an awareness as
to what our industry's really all about."
Reporters Jon Schmitz of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Dan
Hartzell of The Morning Call contributed to this story.
Source: The
Morning Call
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The
Morning Call Archives
Copyright © 2014 The Morning Call
Publication Date: July 8, 2014
Day: Tuesday Page: A2 Length: short |
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Caption: No Art |
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Byline: The
Morning Call
Headline: CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS |
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Jack James is executive
director of the Lehigh Valley Contractors Association. A
story in Friday's paper had an incorrect name.
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