Work-Based Learning Just Could be the Solution to Contractors’ Skilled Labor Shortages

Contractors are under increasing pressure, not due to a lack of work, but rather a lack of skilled hands. According to recent data from ManpowerGroup, the US labor shortage sits at 70%, with seven in ten employers unable to find suitable workers. As a result, contractors must compete on talent, wages, and jobs that require skills they don’t currently have. And especially when up against larger, more established brands, contractors lose this battle often.

The Rise of Work-Based Learning

The commercial contracting industry has long needed a way to reach talented youth before they are pipelined into a four-year college degree that may or may not be right for them. These young people will be the future of our organizations if we can recruit and train them early enough.

My partner GPS Education Partners have identified high-quality work-based learning (WBL) as a solution to the skilled labor shortage. WBL is learning by doing and often includes apprenticeships, internships, and job shadows that are authentic and agile and promote aspiration and agency. For contractors, it involves bringing young people onto job sites, into shops, or into the field in a longer-term, structured manner, to learn the ropes alongside experienced employees.

WBL is Ideal for Commercial Contracting

WBL works well for contractors for several reasons. First, it teaches the practical and transferable skills young people are often slow to develop. We are fond of telling the story of Johnson Controls, an HVAC contractor that partnered with GPS Ed to launch a Youth Talent Development Program. High school students rotated through real HVAC service branches, learning to troubleshoot, install, and maintain systems. At the end of the program, these students were ready to pick up entry-level roles immediately.

WBL also creates a reliable talent pipeline for the local commercial contracting industry in general, even if individual students don’t stay with your company after their high school graduation. Some employers leveraging WBL have told us that around half of program graduates hold jobs in the industry by the end of their first year, and all of them had been placed in relevant roles by the third year.

WBL reduces turnover not just among program youth, but also among the employees assigned as their mentors. High school participants often want to stay at a site full-time post-graduation because they have learned the culture of the organization, have built solid relationships, and feel invested in the company’s mission and direction. According to recent data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 50-60% of interns convert to full-time employees, and those hires stay longer than traditional recruits. 

Finally, WBL serves as a way to promote diversity, equity, and access, and to adapt to new technologies and regulations. By design, WBL programs often focus on underrepresented minority groups such as people of color and people with disabilities.

For instance, Milwaukee Public Schools’ program showed ALL students how they could start a high-pay, high-demand career in construction and the trades, even if academic study wasn’t their thing. And one of the major benefits of having students onsite is that they can grow up alongside the technologies contractors are tasked with implementing.

Smart systems, green building codes and new safety standards are just some of the changes coming to the commercial contracting industry. WBL promotes agility in operations, a tech-ready workforce, and a competitive market position.

Contractors Can Get Involved with WBL Today

Several immediate steps come to mind for contractors who are intrigued but don’t know where to start.

Start with one school partner. Work together to establish an achievable, short-term goal to pilot WBL in one specific area with one specific group of students. At the beginning, even a program that’s only two hours a week provides proof of concept and the momentum to expand.

Connect with a convener. Organizations like GPS Education Partners will work with your community’s policymakers and school leaders to craft a palatable solution that meets a multi-pronged set of objectives.  They often bridge diverse perspectives while managing issues like logistics, transportation, funding, and compliance.

Use WBL for employee engagement. WBL should be viewed as an opportunity for current employees to grow their own careers through leadership, training, and mentorship of the next generation. I’ve seen firsthand the pride on a tenured employee’s face when one of their students is promoted and is now capable of earning a family-sustaining wage.

Combat the skilled trades’ image program. Mostly due to messages their parents received, many young people are reluctant to pursue what they perceive as a less desirable career path. The current high unemployment along college graduates is making American youth rethink this stereotype, and we need to do our part to communicate how and why a trades career can be just as rewarding and financially sound as any other.

By using WBL to develop and train local youth, contractors can solve three stick problems at once: landing job-ready talent, decreasing dissatisfaction among current employees, and building an organization that’s operationally resilient enough to withstand future disruptions.