Print This Article			Print All Articles			Email the Editor

Skilled Building Trades Hit Home Runs at Busch and PNC Stadiums

Brett Hardesty, president of the Home Builders Association of Greater St. Louis, also participated in the in-field activities, accompanied by Emily Stover DeRocco, the assistant secretary for the Employment and Training Administration.

Patrick Sullivan, the executive director of the St. Louis association, helped coordinate the event, which included a tent in the parking lot filled with educational materials on careers in the residential construction industry.

Following a ceremony with the Pirates on Labor Day at Pittsburgh’s PNC park, this was the second Major League baseball game this month to recognize “Skills to Build America’s Future,” an outreach effort sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor to educate young people and workers in transition on the career opportunities in the skilled trades. NAHB is a principal partner in this initiative, along with the Construction Industry Round Table and the National Heavy & Highway Alliance and its seven international unions.

Home builders returned to Pittsburgh on Sept. 24 for Fireworks Night and a “Skilled Trades Day at the Park,” which was also sponsored by the Department of Labor with Skilled Trades Coalition members. John Auciello, executive director of the Builders Association of Metro Pittsburgh, helped coordinate local industry participation.

Representing the home building industry in pre-game activities on the field was builder Dion McMullen of Londonbury Homes, who is secretary/treasurer of the Pittsburgh association and is active in its Workforce Development Committee and Student Chapters program. Throwing the first pitch was Anthony Swoope, administrator of the Office of Apprenticeship Training and Employer Services at the Department of Labor.

HBI offers training in seven skilled trades to students enrolled in the Department of Labor’s Job Corps, and through its Craft Skills pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship training programs, such as Project CRAFT. The institute has also developed state-of-the-art instructional materials in five skilled trades in partnership with Thomson Delmar Learning.

For more information on “Skills to Build America’s Future” or HBI programs and resources, e-mail Maria McIntyre or call her at 800-795-7955, x8912.

go to top