Hardwood Floors April/May 2017

RESOURCES

By Stephanie Owen

An Industry Effort: Addressing the Skilled Labor Shortage

The message is being sounded in Washington D.C. as several wood product associations are lobbying for the Carl Perkins Act to be reinstated. The Carl Perkins Career and Technical Education Act was developed to increase the quality of tech education in order to help the economy. The funding for this Act has been significantly cut and associations such as Advance CTE, an organization that represents state directors and leaders responsible for secondary, postsecondary, and adult Career Technical Education (CTE) across all 50 states and U.S. territories, have been advocating for the funding to be reinstated to its previous levels. The NWFA along with other wood product industry associations have been supportive of these efforts. NWFA is currently working on several initiatives that are designed to help address the skilled labor shortage in our industry:

In the past few years, our industry has started to face a new challenge — a shortage of qualified job applicants. While the Recession ended several years ago, many Americans are still unemployed because they lack necessary skills. As a result, vital industry positions sit vacant. In a recent survey, 86 percent of construction firms reported trouble filling available positions last year, and 93 percent of employers now cite hiring challenges as a barrier to growth in the coming year. The most difficult positions to fill both nationally and globally are in skilled trades. The shortage stems from both the demand and supply sides of the labor market. On the demand side, an aging workforce means there are more open positions for installers, creating demand for workers. Surveys suggest that 31 million skilled trade positions will be left vacant by 2020 due to retirements. On the supply side, more and more high school graduates are choosing to pursue a college degree, and far fewer are choosing to enter the trades.

• NWFA UNIVERSITY (NWFAU) COMBINED WITH DIGITAL BADGING. The NWFA launched NWFAU in July 2016. Since launching NWFA University, the association has seen staggering engagement: more than 8,000 courses have been completed, and more than 4,000 badges have been issued in partnership with Credly, a digital credentialing platform that ensures that credentials are valid, reliable, and authenticated. Digital badging will help with brand awareness as they are shared on social media sites, thus providing visibility to a younger, tech-savvy, social generation. • HIGHER LEVELS OF CERTIFICATION. NWFA will be launching higher levels of certification at Expo in April. These higher levels will allow certified professionals to continue their education and become a Certified Craftsman and Certified Master Craftsman. These advanced certifications provide our members with a clear path to becoming a leader in their trade and opportunities for growth, which has proven to be of importance to the Millennial generation. • FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF LABOR (DOL) APPROVED APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM. NWFA is currently in the draft stages of developing a Federal DOL-approved apprenticeship program. Once complete, NWFA will create a grassroots campaign to push the program to high schools, CTE centers, member companies, and more. • LOCAL CTE CENTER JOB FAIR. In April, NWFA will have a booth at the Lewis and Clark Community College Job Fair in St. Charles, Missouri for CTE students. The NWFA team’s goal will be to learn from this event and build a toolkit that members can use in their own marketplace. The NWFA team also hopes this will provide an opportunity to market the apprenticeship program pending its development status in April.

the magazine of the national wood flooring association

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