Page 23 - Skills - 2024

recommend their organization as a place to work over the past three years. The report attributed construction workers’ happiness to rising wages and numerous job opportunities.
A forecasted labor shortage will soon create new job opportunities for workers as older workers retire and industry technology, including AI, transforms the building trades from blue collar to new collar.
Also, there’s a renewed focus on recruiting and training less experienced workers with the skills needed for the jobs of tomorrow’s economy. Here’s how to get started.
The Advantages of Apprenticeship Training
Apprenticeship is a “learn-while-you-earn” model in which participants obtain wages, which are increased as the apprentice accumulates greater skills and more experience on the job. Higher wages represent a tangible outcome of their engagement in a combination of classroom education and job-related training over a three-to-five-year period.
Economic Opportunities
With the current tight labor market, the need for skilled craft workers has intensified. Enhancing the availability
of apprenticeships continues to be a major priority for improving workforce outcomes and strengthening worker skills. (Source: Federal Reserve Bank)
Cost of College Degrees
The average cost of tuition and fees for the 2023-2024 academic year was $41,540. at a private nonprofit college and $11,260 for state residents at a public college. Out-of- state students attending a public college or university paid an average cost of $29,150. (Source: The College Board)
Apprenticeship Is the ‘Other Four-Year Degree’
In the building and construction trades, registered apprenticeship programs provide participants with a high-quality, portable and nationally recognized credential that certifies occupational proficiency in the construction industry. (Source: AFL-CIO)
Earning While Learning
The average cost of a four-year college tuition, including living expenses, heaps an additional $40,000 on the shoulders of state residents attending public colleges. That’s not factoring in another $10,000-$15,000 in costs for many students who take an extra year to complete an undergraduate degree.
Coupled with the loss of income for years immediately following high school — at an average annual income of $35,000 for middle-skilled workers — this can widen the early career earning gap of more than $150,000 in net worth of a skilled tradesman/woman compared with a newly minted college graduate.
Technical and trade school jobs have a median annual salary of $35,720, based on a particular industry and the experience level of the worker.
Apprenticeship enables you to start working and earn
a decent wage while you learn key skills and gain the qualifications employers want. (Source: The National Center for Education Statistics)
The Role of Apprenticeships
With the need for skilled workers comes a need to create career pathways through certification, on-the-job training, and apprenticeships. A federal executive order recently increased the number of apprenticeships tenfold, from 500,000 to five million. The U.S. Department of Labor announced more than $50 million in state expansion grants to grow apprenticeship programs across a diverse array of industry sectors. (Source: Federal Reserve Bank)
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For more information, contact the Construction Industry Council of Westchester & Hudson Valley, Inc. www.cicbca.org