Masonry Magazine July 2012 Page. 20
Timothy Large | Dreamstime.com
Developing a workforce means giving your time and sharing your skills.
Keeping our Trade Strong
By Moroni Mejia
A QUICK SEARCH OF "WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT" ON GOOGLE will yield more than 62 million results in less than a quarter of a second. Pretty much everything has been said, written and done before. You've heard all the clichés about the "lifeblood" and "backbone" of our industry. Many of you understand the importance of a skilled workforce, and some of you already are heavily involved in training efforts locally and nationally.
As I racked my brain for a new idea or some original thought regarding this subject that is so important to us as an industry, I had a bit of a personal revelation. Workforce development isn't an initiative, a training center, a national contest, a curriculum, or a marketing effort. In its purest, most personal sense, it is a collection of individuals who have given of their time, shared their skills, imparted knowledge, and provided each of us the opportunities that have allowed us to become con-
18 MASONRY July 2012 www.masoncontractors.org
The Voice of the Masonry Industry