Masonry Magazine December 1999 Page. 18
As you can see, many areas in the United States have already put forth the effort to solve our industry's training and recruiting crisis. However, more still needs to be done. The MCAA is currently putting together a proposal for an extensive recruitment program, which will be industry funded. The MCAA plans to contact approximately 19,000 high schools across the United States to offer free copies of the "Check Out a Career in Masonry" kit for their guidance counselors or libraries as well as assistance in scheduling mason contractors for the schools' career days and fairs. The MCAA plans to hire another staff person to assist those high schools in obtaining contractor involvement for their career days, current masonry programs or starting new masonry programs. "In the past, the MCAA has focused its efforts on providing materials to the contractors for career days and has only seen modest results," stated Doug Nichols, MCAA Training Committee Chairman. "With the MCAA making the contacts to the schools and then scheduling contractors to attend career days, more career days will be attended and masonry will be seen as a career choice more often by more students. In addition, if this program is successful, we plan to initiate a similar effort in junior highs."
In addition, this recruitment program is going to include an extensive manpower study to be conducted once every two years. This study will be used to benchmark training and recruitment efforts across the U.S. so that we, as an industry, can gauge our progress. The recruitment program will also include the creation of a high school/pre-apprentice curriculum to make it easier to include masonry programs in schools.
Another goal of this training and recruiting effort is to start Vocational and Industrial Clubs of America - Skills USA masonry programs in high schools across the United States. There are currently around 250 masonry programs in the United States; it is the MCAA's goal to double that number by the end of 2002.
With this renewed effort, hopefully the Department of Labor's 1992 prediction will not be fulfilled, at least for the masonry industry. For more information on what you can do, contact the Mason Contractors Association of America at 800-536-2225. Together, we can make a difference.
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