Take action to ensure the future of our industry

BY DAVID J. KRUSE,

contributing writer

One of our industry’s most pressing challenges is to find the talented individuals to form tomorrow’s workforce before today’s workforce retires. As a contractor, I am honored to hold a leadership position in an organization that is addressing these challenges with concrete actions, the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA). Whether it’s by engaging students through student chapter activities, reaching out to high school students through the ace Mentor program, tapping into the expertise of those returning from military service through the Helmets-to-Hardhats initiative, or searching out technicians through the 5 star Careers program, solutions are being continuously implemented to help contractors meet their needs.

Engaging students through student chapter activities

MCAA’s Career Development program connects contractors with the next generation of industry professionals. This first-class, second-to-none student chapter program was developed to get the attention of the best and the brightest, because we knew that MCAA contractors face tough competition for the hearts and minds of talented, well-educated young people coming out of college-level engineering and construction management programs.

The model for our program was created at Purdue University in 1993. Professor John Koontz knew that students learn more when they can see and touch what they are studying in the classroom, so he organized field trips to construction job sites so his students could see mechanical systems being installed and experience the excitement of a project site. He also worked with the local MCAA-affiliated association -- the MCA of Indiana -- to find contractors who would come into the classroom to talk to students about the industry, their businesses, and what it was that attracted them to mechanical contracting. Finally, he arranged for students to attend MCAA’s convention to meet contractors from across the country and discuss career opportunities with their companies.

Koontz’s idea caught on and, more importantly, caught the attention of MCAA’s Board of Directors five years later when it became apparent that our industry faced a professional manpower shortage if we didn’t start aggressively recruiting young people into our professional ranks. The idea for a national student chapter program was incorporated into MCAA’s Strategic Plan and was implemented almost immediately.

The Board created the Career Development Committee to develop the framework for the national student chapter program and administer its operations. The committee succeeded in chartering 11 chapters during the first two years of the program, an enthusiastic cadre of students and faculty and local association sponsors who got the idea that everybody wins with this program. Six years later, MCAA includes 40 student chapter numbers, and that number is still growing.

In 2001, the committee decided to make the program even more attractive and interesting to students by appealing to two very critical characteristics -- their need to compete and their need to socialize. That year, the committee organized MCAA’s first national student chapter competition based on an actual project and ran it much like an actual competitive project bid. The project was tough, the rules were strict, and the prizes were generous. The competition was launched during MCAA’s first-ever Student Chapter Summit, a two-day conference that’s for and about the students.

The Summit and the competition have greatly increased the student chapter program’s visibility and popularity among MCAA members, most notably its contractor members. Contractors are increasingly viewing the student chapter program as a rich resource for potential future hires. This is evident by the increase in contractor attendance at the competition finals, which has tripled since the event first took place in 2002 at the MCAA convention in Boca Raton, Fla. And, each year, the Summit welcomes more contractors who now see the annual student conference as a fertile hunting ground for soon-to-be graduates looking for jobs.

Contractors are finding other ways to recruit through the MCAA student chapter program. In 2004, the Mechanical Contracting Education and Research Foundation (mcerf) made grants available to MCAA contractors who hire student interns. Contractors who win a grant benefit from the opportunity to “field test” a potential employee and part of their costs are reimbursed with the grant. Everyone wins with the student internship program. Students bring new technologies and new ideas to work and return to school with the experience of working on a project in the field, helping with a bid estimate, relating to the trade craft workers, checking on equipment and supply orders, and other tasks typically involved in the daily operations of a mechanical contractor.

Reaching out to high school students through the ACE Mentor Program

The national ace Mentor Program teams architects, constructors and engineers (hence, the name ace) with teams of urban high school students who have an interest in a career in the construction industry. The idea is to teach these young people about those professions when they are beginning to think about their future, their interests, and how they might merge the two into a lucrative career.

The program started about 10 years ago, the brain child of structural engineer Charles Thornton, a principal of the world-renowned engineering firm Thornton-Tomasetti Group. The program now boasts several hundred teams in 80 cities, and several thousand students and mentors.

MCAA became aware of the ace Mentor Program in November 2006, when Charles Bacon of Limbaugh broached the idea of MCAA becoming involved in the ace Mentor Program. A partnership between the two organizations enabled each to fill a gap in their programs; ace Mentor support of young people ended when they graduated from high school while MCAA’s Career Development program was limited to college students. Ace Mentor would allow MCAA to reach into high schools for students interested in a construction career through its student chapters that would become part of ace Mentor teams. Ace Mentor could steer its young people to colleges with MCAA student chapters to continue the enrichment of young minds that it had begun. The synergy was there and very apparent to both organizations.

MCAA joined ACE Mentor and became a member of its Board of Directors at the beginning of 2007, with Bob Armistead serving as MCAA’s representative on the ace Board. This year, the mca of Indiana Student Chapter at Purdue University became the first MCAA student chapter to join an ace Mentor team, working with high school students in the Indianapolis area. The MCAA Student Chapter at Georgia Tech is also taking steps to become involved with an ace Mentor team in their area.

MCAA members may also choose to participate directly with ace as members of a mentoring team. Doing so allows them to: identify talented young people as future interns and employees; help to nurture those who demonstrate talents as leaders, managers and technicians; and share insights and experiences that might inspire these young people to choose a career in mechanical construction.

Tapping into the expertise of those returning from military service

Helmets to Hardhats (h2h) is a national program that connects National Guard, Reserve and transitioning active-duty military members with quality career training and employment opportunities within the construction industry. Established in 2003, h2h is administered by the Center for Military Recruitment, Assessment, and Veterans Employment. MCAA and its partners at the United Association of the Plumbing, Pipefitting and Sprinkler Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada (ua) are among 15 participating construction trades.

Both the candidates and the construction trades benefit when military veterans apply the skills they have already learned to a variety of positions in the construction industry, including technical, administrative, engineering and management. By visiting www.helmetstohardhats.org, interested individuals can access opportunities or post their resumes from anywhere in the world. Contractors can post opportunities, review the resumes of potential candidates and manage all of their postings online, including applicant status, letters, and more.

Searching out technicians through the 5 STAR Careers Program

5 star Careers, a new joint campaign from the MCAA subsidiary Mechanical Service Contractors of America (msca) and the ua, raises awareness of the benefits of a career as a hvacr service technician and recruits the next generation of technicians. The campaign was initiated to help address the severe manpower shortage facing the hvac service industry.

The centerpiece of the campaign is a new website, www.5starcareers.com, where experienced technicians can submit their detailed career profile that will be posted on the site’s members-only section. Over 1,300 msca contractors and 300 local ua unions will then have access to these profiles to help address manpower needs in their area.

The site also includes an area for parents and educators to see the benefits of a career in hvacr, including college credits, degree programs, certifications and training and other information to help answer questions they might have about the industry. Guidance counselors and educators can also order a brochure about the hvacr service technician career on the website.

What next?

As contractors collaborate on solutions to the workforce shortage, more great ideas will unfold. And MCAA will be right there, waiting to implement the best and the brightest for its members continuing success.                   

David J. Kruse serves as president of the Mechanical Contractors Association of America, Inc. (MCAA). He is the president of L.J. Kruse Company, a commercial and industrial plumbing and piping contractor in Berkeley, Calif.