Construction Apprenticeship Training in Pennsylvania (PA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on
Publication Date: February 22, 2019
Executive Summary 
After a deep industry decline in and after the Great Recession, the Pennsylvania construction industry has in the last several years again faced a shortage of skilled craft workers. This shortage could grow more severe in the years ahead due to an aging construction workforce, leading to high rates of retirement. Since the early 1990s, the share of the Pennsylvania construction industry workers aged 40 and over has risen from less than a third to nearly half.
In the context of emerging skills shortages, this report evaluates the role of apprenticeship training in meeting Pennsylvania’s need for skilled construction workers, relying primarily on official government data. The report highlights the distinction between apprenticeship programs governed by joint committees of labor and management, hereafter referred to as joint or union programs, and programs governed unilaterally by individual employers or employer associations (non-union programs).
  • Union programs account for nearly six out of every seven construction apprentices in Pennsylvania. Over the 2000 to 2016 period, 85 percent of construction apprentices in Pennsylvania participated in joint labor management programs and 15 percent in non-union, management-only, programs.
  • Union programs account for nine out of every 10 Pennsylvania construction apprentices who are not white and male. Union programs had 4,883 Non-White and Hispanic male construction apprentices from 2000 to 2016 and non-union ones had 568. Over this same period, 1,083 female apprentices participated in union programs, and 83 females participated in non-union programs.
  • Union apprenticeship programs graduate more than six veterans for every one veteran graduated by nonunion programs. Nearly 3,000 (2,749) veterans have participated in union construction apprenticeship programs in Pennsylvania since 2000, compared to 516 veterans who participated in non-union ones.
  • Graduation rates are higher in union apprenticeship programs, including for minorities, women, and veterans. Of those enrolled in union apprenticeship programs from 2000 to 2012, 56% had completed their apprenticeship by 2016, compared to a completion rate of 44% for non-union programs. For minority male and female apprentices, and for veterans, graduation rates were about 25% higher for union apprenticeship programs than non-union.
  • Wage rates at entry and especially at completion are higher in union apprenticeship programs. Starting wages for union apprentices are 36% higher than for non-union apprentices. Upon completion (or “exit”), the union apprentice pay premium compared to non-union apprentices climbs to 60%.
  • Higher shares of blue-collar union trades in Pennsylvania have a two- or four-year college degree than nonunion trades and the share of blue-collar union trades with a college degree has risen to one in four. The share of unionized blue-collar trades that have a two-year or four-year college degree has more than doubled since the early 1990s, to just over 25%. The share of non-union trades that have a college degree has also risen but remains 10 percentage points below the union share.

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(PDF Copy of Report)

New Memphis program encourages more students to pursue careers in construction (TN)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BY LAURA FAITH KEBEDE
MAY 14, 2019

About 200 more Memphis students will be able to work toward certification in construction jobs next year thanks to a two-year state grant and an additional curriculum announced Tuesday.

The after-school program, known as Pre-Apprenticeship Certificate Training, or PACT, is Gov. Bill Lee’s latest push to train more high school students to enter careers straight out of high school in areas such as masonry, carpentry, landscaping, painting, plumbing, and construction technology.

“I’ve long known that there is a shortage of those skilled workers because we have left that part of education out of our public school system for decades,” said Lee, who ran a similar training program out of his family business in Williamson County.

“They have giftings and skills that college kids don’t, and yet we do very little to direct paths for them in successful careers,” he added.

The program is meant to help bridge the gap between young people looking for work and companies that can’t fill construction jobs. Memphis has the nation’s highest rate of youth not working or in school. As more building developments spring up, some companies have even turned down projects because they don’t have enough workers, according to local media reports. Memphis was named one of the fastest growing markets in construction in 2017 by the Associated General Contractors of America.

“Understanding what this program is about really gives me as the president of a company in the building industry a huge sigh of relief,” said Jennifer Ransom of The Ransomed Group.

About 100 students at five high schools this year were certified in skills required for construction jobs, but Shelby County Schools hopes to dramatically increase that number through the new program, said Tanika Lester, the district’s manager of college and career technical education programs. About 2,400 students earned certifications across more than a dozen other career fields this year – more than double the district’s goal, Lester said.

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