A groundbreaking partnership among an organization of construction companies, union contractors and area universities will produce future generations of trained construction supervisors and allow them to earn college credits at the same time.
And this leadership training partnership may become a national model, according to one educator from Purdue University West Lafayette.
The Northwest Indiana Business Roundtable and the Construction Advancement Foundation are partnering with Purdue University Calumet to implement the Supervisory Training Program. This nationwide program offered by the Washington, D.C.-based Associated General Contractors of America covers every facet of construction management in 12 units.
PUC's Construction Science and Organizational Leadership Department will match the STP units with university course requirements for a bachelor's degree in construction management and engineering technologies.
To do that, the STP units are grouped into four blocks of three modules. Each block is worth three credit hours and corresponds to one of the four courses, says Tony Gregory, professor of civil engineering technology and department head at PUC.
Two of the blocks will be completed in the student's freshman year and two in the senior year. Completing the 12 units will earn participants 12 credit hours, Gregory says.
Ivy Tech is also a member of this program and provides assessment, says Willis Shepherd of the Business Roundtable. Ivy Tech officials are looking into how the STP units might transfer into college credit at that institution, Shepherd says.
"The AGC program curriculum is developed with real-world experience," says T.J. Ferrantella, president of Engineered Constructors Inc. and a member of the Business Roundtable's education committee.
The program isn't new to the Calumet region, he says. "It used to be offered 15 or 20 years ago through the CAF."
What's bringing it back is concern that a wave of retirements in Northwest Indiana's construction industry would leave fewer trained and experienced supervisors, Ferrantella says.
"We're looking beyond today," Shepherd says.
"We're facing a workforce shortage of construction supervisors as these managers retire. They take with them a depth of experience."
The shortage of trained supervisors in the construction industry is a national issue, not one limited to Northwest Indiana, says Daphene Cyr Koch, assistant professor at Purdue University West Lafayette. "We hope this partnership will become a national model," she says.
The training is also critical in this area, because so much construction activity involves work in steel mills, refineries and other heavy industrial sites, the Business Roundtable's Ferrantella says, noting, "These industrial sites are inherently more challenging than the typical construction job site.
"We have an elite workforce in Northwest Indiana. It's among the highest-paid and best-educated in the country and if it's going to be sustainable, we have to look toward the future."
In addition, new technologies are requiring advanced college coursework and even college degrees to become a construction supervisor, Ferrantella says. "It's important to know how international changes affect the industry. There's a pressure to become more efficient."
Business Roundtable officials hope to have the "first crop" of trained supervisors complete the STP program by the end of 2010.
"We have to keep investing in our people," Ferrantella says.
"Imagine a union construction worker who goes through his apprenticeship and becomes a journeyman, then goes on to Ivy Tech, then through the STP, where he earns 12 credit hours toward a degree in construction management at Purdue," Ferrantella says.
"STP isn't just a stand-alone piece. It's part of life-long learning."
To learn more
For more information about the Supervisory Training Program and its sponsors, log on to the Northwest Indiana Business Roundtable site at www.nwibrt.org or the Construction Advancement Foundation Web site at www.cafnwin.org.
