When you cut through all the noise, politics and sociology generally boil down to the study of unintended consequences.
Congruent with the establishment of the U.S. Department of Education in 1979, the United States also began to see a cultural shift in societal views on education, work and “success.” While USDoE does not directly determine curricula, it does drive culture, particularly as it defines one of its primary functions as focusing attention on key educational issues.
In theory, that’s a neutral-to-beneficial goal. In reality, it contributed to a national paradigm shift that has left core segments of the U.S. economy and culture in significant decline. That change in thought process can be distilled down to decades spent normalizing the idea that a four-year college degree (and, preferably a master’s degree added on for good measure) is the only legitimate path to success.
We can’t lay the entire blame for this at the feet of USDoE. The founding of the Department in its current form and the subsequent belittling and institutional dismissal of skilled trades are not causally linked. They arose congruently from a greater overall social trend reaching all the way back to the start of the Baby Boom that we don’t have space or inclination to dissect here.
The short version is this: The United States, as a culture, has spent nearly two generations reinforcing a policy that formal advanced education is the only legitimate path to success for all students while simultaneously belittling training and education in the skilled trades. How many parents have told their kids some variant of, “You’d better pay attention in school and get good grades or else you’re going to end up as a plumber or a ditch digger?”
Across the country, high schools started eliminating shop classes and vocational training and undertaking “teach to the test” instructional methods that trained students how to do well on the standardized tests that measure academic success and partially determine school funding.
Of course, the end result of forcing students onto a four-year college path—along with some horribly short-sighted policy and program shifts on financial aid, student loans and tuition structuring—has led to crises in both crippling levels of student debt ($1.77T as of Q2 2023) and a skilled labor shortage that has devastated domestic manufacturing and throttled back construction output far below the rate of market demand.
The construction industry was complicit in this process for far too long. Over the last five years, we have heard nearly every speaker on the subject say something to the effect of, “We didn’t do enough to counter the myths that a four-year degree is the only path to success, that skilled trades is where you end up if you make bad decisions, and that working with your hands is something to be ashamed of.”
Fortunately, over the past several years, the industry has started punching back out of sheer necessity. That generational shortage of new workers coming into the field has caught up to us. It’s good that we’re doing something about it.
The average age of U.S. construction workers is 42, according to the National Association of Home Builders. That’s only a year or so older than workers in other fields, but, as Indiana Jones said, “It’s not the years. It’s the mileage.” Construction is far more physically demanding than, say, marketing, and as workers age, they tend to spend less time performing hands-on tasks, as one would expect as a matter of normal career advancement.
As desperation mounts, efforts increase. Industry groups, vocational schools and community colleges—and many individual companies—have put serious capital and effort into getting the turnaround moving. While the late start has left construction workforce development several laps down, ongoing and evolving programs have kept the industry in the race.
Hope and Work Spring Eternal
This column arose from a recent Associated General Contractors of America report entitled, “The Whole-of-Firm Approach: A New Paradigm for Construction Workforce Development.”
The report was compiled as a result of AGC of America’s inaugural National Construction Industry HR & Workforce Conference last November. The conference brought together industry leaders, stakeholders and cross-disciplinary experts to examine the problems of construction workforce development and assemble an integrated solution set.
Whether you’re a construction company CEO, a human resources manager, a project team leader or a journeyman crew member, we highly recommend downloading and reading the report. It’s not even 14 full pages, and the insights are a) worth reading and b) likely to inspire new ideas you can bring to your own firm.
We will list the core highlights here. Participants identified the three core components of retention as 1) Culture and vision, 2) Training and development, and 3) Creating clear opportunities for advancement.
While many workforce development programs and reports focus on industry and educational partnerships to get workers in the door in the first place, findings arising from the conference focused at least as much on retaining workers once they are part of the organization and helping them advance and, hopefully, bring in new talent as well.
The sections target three core groups within the organization: The C-Suite leadership, human resources and frontline teams.
On the C-Suite side, participants identified five key recommendations. Quoting directly, they are:
- Partner to recruit from non-traditional pools of possible workers.
- Build stronger relationships with construction education institutions to improve the quality of candidates and support recruitment efforts.
- Make career trajectories at your firm clear, flexible and transparent to better retain current and future workers.
- Defining, sharing and living the core values of your firm is key to retaining workers.
- Align with Human Resources to implement an integrated, enterprise-wide approach to reach workforce goals.
On the Human Resources side, two key components were identified. Quoting again they are:
- Build new recruiting partnerships.
- Embrace new ways of supporting your current workforce.
Lastly, the report identifies efforts that can be undertaken by the frontline team leaders—the supervisors, project managers and crew leaders—to empower worker retention and increase recruitment. Those points are:
- Encourage project personnel to get involved in workforce development.
- Be comfortable with new workers and new ways for them to work.
- Make your jobsites more welcoming for new workers.
- Connect your people with the broader firm.
Each component of each work group is explored in greater detail in the report, and we once again recommend reading it over and discussing it with your own work teams.
One More Tool in the Box
While how far construction, as an industry, has to go to make up for decades of underperformance in workforce development may be daunting, the last several years have given plenty of reasons for tempered optimism.
Regardless of one’s feelings about the occupants of the Oval Office during the current and previous administrations, both have repeatedly and publicly articulated the need for improved vocational training and skilled labor development. Compare this to the early 1990s when the entire focus of the White House labor policy was enacting a shift to a service-based economy.
There are several national outreach and awareness efforts bringing attention to the need and working toward solutions. Perhaps most easily recognizable to people not directly in the industry is the work of Mike Rowe, whose TV shows “Dirty Jobs,” “Somebody’s Gotta Do It,” and “How America Works,” have been showcasing the work and chopping away at the “PR problem” of skilled labor development in the U.S. for 20 years. Rowe also founded MikeRoweWORKS, an organization dedicated to promoting the trades as a positive career path and key component of American life.
The core component of the organization is awarding scholarships to help interested applicants pursue vocational training. As of last March, the MikeRoweWORKS Foundation has awarded more than $6.7M in scholarships to applicants looking to pursue careers in the skilled trades.
In Arizona, we have a strong coalition of industry leaders and educational outlets working together to foster skilled workforce development. In addition to hands-on and classroom training, advocates are also tackling the PR problem and hosting events for students as early in the process as middle school to raise awareness of the value and potential of a career in the trades and to overcome the elitist rhetoric that only a career resulting from a college education has value.
In closing, I want to break a general rule of thumb I have about not sharing things I find on social media. This one, I promise, is relevant. In this TikTok clip shared on X, the poster—who has a master’s degree and works a traditional “professional” job—explains that her husband with a high school diploma and trade skill certifications makes quadruple her annual salary after eight years of work in his field.
What gives one hope and pride in seeing this is that the poster is not angry or shocked that she’s being out-earned. She’s proud of her familial situation and pushes the understanding that a four-year degree is not the right path for everyone. She understands and is preaching from the non-trades side that both professional satisfaction and serious financial benefit can be achieved by people willing to learn the skills, do the work and embrace skilled labor.
There is still far too much work to be done and far, far too much ground to cover to even imagine where a tipping point might lie, but the new AGC report and the ongoing efforts we, as an industry, have put in so far, show that we’re making progress.
Winning races is not a matter of miles, but of steps taken.