Editor's note: Since this article was originally published, HoustonWorks has gone out of business. The new YouthBuild grant is operated by SER-Jobs for Progress.Last month YouthBuild Houston and HoustonWorks teamed up with Houston Habitat for Humanity to participate in the Hands on Housing Block...
This Week's Second Look
Reshaping the Industry
Three actions are necessary to build a thriving, profitable and durable construction industry:
- Acceptance. Recognize current situations and challenges and accept they are real.
- Leadership. Embrace core values and principles as innovators and leaders.
- Solutions. Collaborate among owners, contractors and workforce for solutions.
Charter Builders in Dallas, a Balfour Beatty company, is the general contractor on the largest “Net Zero” school in the nation, located in Irving, Texas near Dallas. Net Zero means that the facility, when completed in August, will generate sufficient power through its design and from its...
Last month the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) released the results of a national survey of nearly 700 construction firms which revealed that 74% of construction firms are having trouble finding qualified workers. Companies are worried that there will simply not be enough...
Once when I was a kid, my parents had a truckload of dirt dumped onto our driveway. Their intent, and the eventual result, was that the dirt was to be used to level the low spots in our lawn. However, the immediate response to that glorious pile of dirt was that for a few weeks it...
The US Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) have announced the release of a new Commercial and Industrial Construction Competency Model that provides a set of guidelines that the construction industry can use to...
You might not know it but there is a shortage of skilled craftspeople in the industry. Today, with the 24% unemployment across the industry, probably not; however, look at these figures. In its updated projections, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicates that there will be 1,300,...
Twenty-three states - make that thirty - have signed Wage Theft and/or Worker Misclassification bills into law as the focus in a number of legislatures has swung to the issue that is costing workers and taxing agencies billions of dollars in lost revenue.Two bills, The Fair Playing Field Act, SB...
Last month, I talked with Quincy Gibbs, who had just completed a “boot camp,” a Ready for Industry (RFI) program, offered by ABC Houston’s Construction and Maintenance Education Foundation (CMEF). Gibbs learned about the opportunity at Dr. Kirk Lewis Career and Technical High School (CTHS),...
The uncertainties of the past few years have impacted our nation’s economy and many businesses have faced financial pressures. Businesses of all types are struggling, and for some, there is no end in sight. The effects of the pandemic will likely persist long after the threat to our health has been...
