With the skilled labor gap widening, industries are racing against time to fill over 35,000 craft professional positions by 2026.
Workforce programs tackle skilled craft labor shortage
This graphic shows the typical timeline for a new hire to become a seasoned professional.
It takes three to five years for a new hire to develop the experience needed to be considered a skilled craft professional. Ongoing retirement-based attrition is depleting the existing workforce more rapidly than replacement is occurring. In the next four years, approximately 32% of skilled craft professionals will reach retirement age.
Educators and contractors have risen to the challenge by developing innovative programs to recruit, educate, train and retain craft professionals.
Each year the Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance (GBRIA) holds the Craft Workforce Development Awards to recognize high schools, post-secondary institutions and skilled craft contracting companies for their outstanding craft training and workforce development programs.
GBRIA recognized the following schools and businesses for their innovative workforce programs at its awards ceremony. "Each of these organizations plays a vital role in the ongoing efforts to attract, assess, train, develop and retain a vibrant industrial workforce," said Connie Fabre, GBRIA’s president and CEO. "To meet industry’s increasing demands for a highly trained workforce with diverse skillsets, it’s vital that all these groups work together."
High schools:
Excellence: East Baton Rouge Career and Technical Education Center; Live Oak; West Feliciana; Walker; and St. Amant
Merit: Joseph A. Cuillier Career Center; Northeast; False River Academy; French Settlement; Zachary; and East Ascension
Recognition: Brusly/West Baton Rouge Career Academy
Post-secondary institutions:
Technical Education — Excellence: ABC Pelican, Baton Rouge Community College, and River Parishes Community College
Continuing Education — Excellence: Alliance Safety Council; Merit: Louisiana State University Continuing & Digital Education
Contracting companies:
General Construction and Maintenance — Excellence: EXCEL and Performance Contractors; Merit: Brown and Root, Cajun Industries, CAM Industrial Solutions and Turner Industries Group
Hard Craft — Excellence: Triad Electric and Controls and ISC Constructors; Merit: Westgate and MMR Group Specialty Trade — Excellence: PALA and Turner Specialty Services; Merit: Precision Inspection Services and Brock Services; Recognition: Deep South Crane and Rigging, BrandSafway and Total Safety
GBRIA also recognized two individuals who have demonstrated a lifetime of achievement in workforce development: Art Favre, owner and chairman of the board of Performance Contractors Inc., and Steve Welch, plant manager at OxyChem.
As the demand for skilled professionals grows, industry’s involvement in workforce development can make a critical impact. Consider how your business can get invoved in training the next generation of craft professionals.
For more information, visit gbria.org.
