Masonry Magazine October 1997 Page. 13
Instructor Buy-In
Instructors must be convinced of the value of masonry skills. Many vocational instructors are not masonry experts and may not be comfortable teaching masonry skills. This lack of confidence can be attributed to a perceived lack of importance, or both. "When instructors realize the value of masonry skills and feel more capable to teach these skills, they can go with confidence to administrators and ask for support for the program", explained DiGrado. It is necessary to do as much as we can to keep or reintroduce masonry at the high school level so that students can be repeatedly exposed to the masonry industry."
Promotion/Recruitment
Even the most well designed training program will fail if there are no interested students enrolled.
While many apprenticeship programs do take current tenders and forklift operators as students, it is important to promote the masonry trade to ensure local programs a consistent supply of potential students.
Often, it is repeated exposure to an industry that influences careers choices. Ongoing promotional efforts are another area of partnership that is available to the industry, but again the MCAA has indicated that contractors have to actively be involved in promoting the masonry trade.
There are a number of variable factors from state to state and program to program. Moreover one group of individuals can't be everywhere and do everything. This is why it is important for suppliers and manufacturers as well as contractors to work together to get the most publicity from the resources they have.
Career Days and other Promotional Suggestions
Last year many of you may remember the MCAA spearheaded the first annual Masonry Career Day. While one of the may reasons for having the Career Day was indeed to give high school and middle school students exposure to the masonry industry there was another purpose. That purpose was to provide a reason or a catalyst for contractors and other industry partners to get out and talk about the industry.
The MCAA will continue to support the career day because we need to remind you at least once a year that this is part of your responsibility to the industry. The MCAA believes that industry promotion efforts should not be a duty mason contractors perform occasionally, but rather something that is anticipated, scheduled and planned for on an ongoing basis.
Most school districts have one career day or night set up per year. It is important that the date is known and effort is made to participate in that event. However, it can even be more beneficial if individuals make an effort to cultivate relationships with vocational or instructional technology teachers in area high schools. Often a teacher will allow access to his or her classroom on a much more informal basis with much less lead time. Additionally, the more relationships are developed the more flexible and creative promotional efforts can become
Field trips to job sites or plants are more feasible when the parties involved all know and feel comfortable with each other.
If there is a local masonry competition, whether it be apprenticeship sponsored or through VICA, make sure it is public knowledge. Promote the contest to the local papers and at high schools. Think about having the contest at a location the general public might have easy access to. Again, the more individuals are exposed to masonry, the greater the chance they would consider masonry as a career.
Finally, have masonry student involved in constructing goodwill projects. Baseball dugouts, privacy walls and SWAT team training buildings are all projects that have been done by apprenticeship programs or high school trades classes. Goodwill projects generate the best kind of promotion positive word of mouth feedback.
A look toward the future
We can tell by the activity out there, in the form of book sales, questions and telephone calls, that there is definitely a momentum building" said MCAA Executive Director Mike Adelizzi. "To the people that were on the front lines leading the way, you are doing a great job. These training pioneers not only proved it could be done, but they made the job easier for the ones that follow because they are excellent models and resources". However, in order to sustain this momentum, more of you need to get involved. To those contractors who are thinking about it, stop thinking and start doing. We need to work toward the day where workforce development is not an issue, or a problem or a situation, but rather it is just part of the job. And we can do that, one course, one program, one city, one state at a time.
MASONRY-SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER, 1997 13