Through its workforce development arm, the Home Builders Institute (HBI), NAHB has a long history of addressing these challenges through innovative programs such as the Build a Home, Build a Career program, which introduces young people to the residential construction industry at the academic level.
HBI’s 30-year relationship with the Department of Labor’s Job Corps, together with its own Project CRAFT program, helps train and place more than 2,000 at-risk and adjudicated youths in the skilled trades every year.
In addition, newly developed skills training standards in carpentry, electrical, HVAC, plumbing and facilities maintenance have provided the basis for state-of-the-art textbooks and teaching aids for high schools and post-secondary institutions.
The President’s announcement of the vocational education enhancements coincided with the launch of “Skills to Build America’s Future,” a new initiative designed to attract young people to careers in the skilled trades. (For the story in this week’s NBN, click here.) Led by the Department of Labor, the initiative links NAHB, the Construction Industry Roundtable and the National Heavy and Highway Alliance, a partnership of seven major construction craft unions.
Through this program, NAHB/HBI and their partners will reach out to state and local governments, educators and counselors, trade schools and apprenticeship programs to encourage careers in the skilled trades.
'Build a Home, Build a Career' Available Through BuilderBooks.com
"Build a Home, Build a Career," by the Home Builders Institute and available through BuilderBooks.com, is a nine-item kit that contains all the information local home builders associations and members will need to successfully connect with local school systems — core subject lesson plans, how-to guides and ideas for hands-on projects to give high school students first-hand exposure to careers in residential construction. To view or purchase it online, click here or call 800-223-2665 to order.
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