ADVISING for the future

Your advice and counsel is critical to students as they graduate and pursue a career. The construction industry offers ever-evolving, dynamic career opportunities for students who want to enter the workforce immediately after high school as well as for those who want to pursue college degrees.

The industry needs individuals who enjoy working outdoors as well as those more comfortable in front of a computer screen. A construction job is a dynamic environment that changes daily. Our society needs the skills of those who have the ability to envision a building or bridge and create the plans that others will use to turn that vision into reality.  

The construction workforce is as diverse as any that can be imagined.  Some – such as project managers, estimators, and designers – have degrees in business and technology. Others use advanced skills gained from years of training to turn their joy of building and creating into a trade that can vary from operating large equipment to building leading-edge clean rooms, to walking high in the air on steel beams, to installing complex electrical systems.

Students with an interest and aptitude in math, science, and technology in particular should consider careers in construction. From construction management degree programs at world-renowned universities, to apprenticeship programs and trade schools, the industry offers a plentiful and varied range of educational opportunities. And construction jobs offer a lifetime of good pay and benefits, the potential to advance and chances to be your own boss.

Helping to design or build a stadium, bridge, high rise or hospital provides an amazing sense of accomplishment. Your advice to students will help them decide what they want to do with their lives; a career in construction may be one of the best decisions they’ll ever make.

• According to the Association for Career & Technical Education, 81% of dropouts said “more real-world learning” might have influenced them to stay in school. Research shows that a ratio of one CTE class for every two academic classes minimizes the risk of students dropping out.
• A Harvard Graduate School of Education report found that the “College for All” rhetoric that has been so much a part of the education reform movement needs to be broadened significantly to become a “post-high school credential for all.”
• ABC, one of our partner organizations, is a highly-respected national contractor association whose members help their employees train for high-wage careers, transform their interests into marketable skills and triumph as professionals in the construction industry.
• ABC’s training partner, the Gould Construction Institute, provides full access to flexible craft and safety training, delivered by state-approved instructors.
• ABC and its member contractors promote personal advancement based on performance, skill and achievement.
• Individuals are in control of their own destiny — and with scholarships, national competitions, task-oriented learning, networking opportunities, and more, they will have considerable support to help them reach their goals.