INSIDE TUCSON BUSINESS: Mon., Oct. 30, 2006
People make the difference in construction
By Philip S. Moore
Construction is a business that depends on its people, so if the industry wants to keep pace with demand, then it's people that will need to make it happen. For Dan Cavanagh, who spent 12 years as Southern Arizona Director of the Arizona Builders' Alliance before retiring in September, an educated workforce is more than an option. It's a necessity at every level, from the top of the organization to the bottom.
Cavanagh oversaw the creation of a craft training program, presented in conjunction with Pima Community College, and he supported an ongoing series of workshops for contractors and subcontractors, to increase their skill in the challenges of the industry.
“To have a construction industry in any community, the work has to be there, there has to be the management skills, and the business has to pay good wages to keep people in it,” Cavanagh said. “That means there's a demand for a workforce educated in everything from the financial to the technical ends of it.”
There's also a need for collaboration, he said. “TREO (Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities) and the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce have been closely involved in supporting workforce training. They understand the need to maintain the companies and the workers to sustain critical mass for the community.”
Also taking the initiative in training workers has been the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association (SAHBA), which has just started its second class at the SAHBA Institute of Construction, a one-year classroom and field training program administered by L.G. Wolf Company owner and former Pima Community College instructor Les Wolf. The goal of the program is to introduce students to eight principal building trades.
“We felt that if something is going to be done about making sure we have the people we need in this industry in the future, we needed to do something about it,” said Roger Yohem, SAHBA's vice president for marketing and communications.
SAHBA has already been supporting construction trade education at the Fred G. Acosta Job Corps Center and construction education in high schools and Pima Community College, through $4 million in U.S. Department of Labor grants the association has provided to the National Association of Home Builders' Home Builders' Institute, which sponsors and oversees construction trade education at Vail, Sahuarita, Amphitheater and Tucson Unified school districts, as well as Pima Community College.
“It's like everything else, you need to plant the seed and nurture it, then you see payback,” Yohem said. “Everybody, from business leaders to politicians, is warning about the lack of skilled labor. The problem has been that nobody is taking any action.”
He said, “Since, it's important for us to build the future workers in the construction trades, it's important for us to do something about it.”
The members and staff have even been volunteering to help construct a center to expand construction trade education at Catalina High Magnet School, a project funded by a $750,000 Department of Labor grant that could educate 200 students a year in construction-related skills.
Proposed by the school's principal, Dan Bailey, and Marge Gould, director of the school's Learn Center, the SAHBA-sponsored project is being coordinated by Dakota Builders' owner and association Chairman Greg Miedema and Art Flagg, SAHBA vice chairman and vice president of KB Home in Tucson.
Flagg said, “We're converting a former dance area and locker room into a place where kids can learn the fundamental of home and commercial construction and all the trades involved in it. The school will have a hands-on shop area where students can learn to use hand tools, two offices, restrooms and a demonstration area with mockups of walls and other sections of a house where they can learn how the elements go together.”
Ultimately, Flagg said, the goal is to build a house. “They might do what Santa Rita High School does, and build a home for Habitat for Humanity, but that's still something for the future.”
As a volunteer effort, the project has involved contributed material and labor from Borderland Construction, Segunda Concrete, Tucson Plumbing, W. G. Valenzuela Drywall, faculty and students at the Acosta Job Corps Center and SB Design. He said, “There's a 50th anniversary for the school on Jan. 17, 2007, and that's our target date to have this done.”
Beyond what's already being done by the builders' association, Yohem said the association is working to receive voter approval for Proposition 400, which would establish a Pima County Joint Technical Education District, Yohem said.
By funding the district, he said the county's voters can provide a focus and ongoing support for all the vocational education programs in the county.
The result is more high school graduates who know about the career opportunities in construction. Yohem said, “This is a way to build the future of our industry.”
E-mail comments to editor@azbiz.com . Contact Moore by at pmoore@azbiz.com or call (520) 295-4238.