As construction projects heat up, a scramble for apprentices builds

Nate Simms scooted into the crane operator’s seat and began manipulating a panel of levers. Within a minute, and with some advice from an instructor, the junior at Monessen High School had guided the crane’s load hook smoothly to the left and lowered it into a garbage can.

Not bad for Nate’s first time at the helm of a towering crane — or really any construction machinery. “It’s really interesting, working with the machines,” he said.

On one hand, it was a cool field trip on Tuesday for students from Monessen City School District and Lawrence County Career & Technology Center touring the Western Pennsylvania Operating Engineers Joint Apprenticeship and Training Center. The 33,000-square-foot facility is on 240 remote acres of mostly wooded land near New Alexandria in Westmoreland County.

But the larger picture involves a construction industry reaching deeper into schools to confront a regional workforce challenge as projects pick up at a pace unseen in recent years.

“We’re on the cusp of one of the biggest commercial building booms in the history of this region,” said Jeff Nobers, executive director of the Builders Guild of Western Pennsylvania, a nonprofit representing 16 building trade unions and 6 contractor associations. “So the need is there.”

To keep up, the region’s 16 joint apprenticeship training centers will need to double or triple the number of apprentices entering their programs.

Apprenticeships, popular in skilled trades, are an arrangement between management and unions to teach students particular skills by giving them on-the-job training and a pathway to a sustainable career.

Depending on the trade, apprenticeships range from 3 to 5 years, giving students alternating periods in the classroom and on job sites, where they earn wages and benefits, Mr. Nobers said. Salaries in the region range from $50,000 to $70,000 a year once they graduate.

The programs are free for students, as companies and unions combine to spend more $30 million each year on apprenticeship training in Western Pennsylvania, Mr. Nobers said — averaging $8,000 to $10,000 per student each year.

But they are competitive: This year, the Western Pennsylvania Operating Engineers accepted just 55 out of about 800 applicants, according to Steven D. Columbus, administrative manager for the group. The organization increased its apprentices in recent years, he added, currently enrolling about 300 people at its Westmoreland County center.

Apprentices include not just college-age students but displaced workers, veterans and others looking for new skills. But the focus for skilled construction trades — across technical fields in aeronautics, electric utilities and automotive dealerships — has been on reaching teenagers who are increasingly attracted to four-year colleges.

Mr. Nobers said the builders guild has visited 80 to 90 high schools and junior highs over the past academic year, with more visits expected this spring.

Helping the construction trades reach students and vice versa is a focus of Mary Kay Babyak’s task as executive director of the Consortium for Public Education, a McKeesport-based organization that works with about 40 school districts across southwestern Pennsylvania. The group coordinated the students’ visit to the training center on Tuesday.

“One of our greatest concerns is that when people say post-secondary education, they think of four-year colleges,” Ms. Babyak said. “What we think of is, four-year colleges, two-year colleges, apprenticeship programs, certificates. … We have really focused on a whole lot of other opportunities we’re not giving our kids exposure to.”

Last May, the Allegheny Conference on Community Development predicted a shortfall of 80,000 workers in the Pittsburgh region by 2025. According to the study, employers need to retool their expectations for new hires amid a wave of baby boomer retirements and as technology disrupts the skills needed for certain jobs.

Construction work is anticipated to grow rapidly. In 2016, commercial projects totaled $4.2 billion, including 19 that totaled more than $30 million each, according to the Master Builders Association of Western Pennsylvania, a trade association association representing the commercial construction industry.

In 2017, construction projects are expected to grow to $5 billion and steadily increase around Shell Chemical’s ethane cracker under construction in Beaver County. Beginning next spring, Mr. Nobers said, there will be 5,500 union construction trade workers on the site any given day.

But other projects are in the pipeline as well. Dick’s Sporting Goods is spending as much as $80 million to expand its Findlay headquarters; a $60 million apartment complex at Station Square could start this summer; a fulfillment center for Amazon is valued at $100 million.

“This is going to create a tremendous strain on the workforce,”  said Eric Starkowicz, director of industry relations for the builders association. “We need to have people who are getting trained.”

Source: Pittsburgh Post Gazette