A recent study aims to provide recommendations for home building industry stakeholders to better align workforce skills with technological innovation and advances in the home building process. The "Blueprint for Upskilling the Homebuilding Workforce" study was carried out by Building Talent Foundation, a national nonprofit founded by the Leading Builders of America (LBA), a trade association based in Washington, D.C., and with guidance from LBA and support from building products manufacturer Weyerhaeuser. The study identifies high-value technical skills in various trade categories within home building, emerging technical skills for new building technologies, and necesary soft skills as well.
The study makes a range of recommendations, such as using repeated, mixed-method, microburst training rather than one-time, single-method, longer training sessions, and using technology to help accelerate and sustain learning. Additionally, the blueprint calls for industrywide, employer-adopted certifications.
Industry-wide, employer-adopted certifications would be more beneficial when hiring tradespeople, as opposed to manufacturers’ product-specific certifications, yet few exist. The value of industry-wide certification systems reflects a collective aspiration for a more standardized approach to credentialing tradespeople. Various industry and education stakeholders need to join together to create and implement capabilities. Find out more about the study
