Building Careers Right
BuildRight 2024
Graduates from four Portland adult construction training programs sat in on BuildRight meetings, and attended sessions of their choice to learn more about career options in high performance building. Grants from PCEF, the Portland Clean Energy Fund, helped bring 13 eager young men and women to the conference. Home Building Association and its nonprofit arm, Home Building Foundation invited the graduates as a part of a multi-year PCEF Workforce grant involving Constructing Hope, Oregon Tradeswomen, P.O.I.C. and Portland Youth Builders.
BuildRight job fair
Taylor Morrison Team
Meet and Greet
Noyes Development
The graduates were also offered a special “Meet and Greet” with employers in the offices of Green Hammer Design Build. Much like “speed dating”, the trainees cycled through tables of employers every five minutes. The minutes flew by as the employers answered questions, and offered suggestions. For example, when graduate Jackson Estes told builder Brian Schmidt he wanted to pursue carpentry, Schmidt explained he has an option of considering rough or finish carpentry. Most trainees told us told us prior to the” Meet and Greet”, they were unaware of the breadth of options in residential construction.
The buzz in the room was lively, with the conversations flowing easily by everyone involved. Overall, employers told us the exercise was great, with their only regret being they didn’t have more time to spend with each trainee. Helene Cornell of Aris Hydronics offered the trainees short-term employment on a special project, and told her they were thrilled by the opportunity. We thank. Aris Hydronics, Green Hammer, Taylor Morrison, NorthWest Aerobarrier, NW Energy Collaborative,Noyes Development, Resilient Framing Systems, and Brian Schmidt Builder for your participation.
Brian Schmidt
BuildRight
NW Energy Collaborative
The graduates were also given free tickets to the H.O.T.T tour over the weekend following BuildRight, so they could see performance building in person. The intention of these experiences is to help people most affected by climate change to gain the knowledge they need to build more sustainable communities. The four training programs PCEF funds are supporting all provide free training to low income people, most of whom are people of color, or are otherwise underrepresented in the construction industry. Trainees are also receiving classroom instruction on best practices, and receive certificates from Earth Advantage.
Akeem Griffin of Gryphon Construction
Jenn Palgliaro -Lovett Deconstructiion
Both HBA and HBF are determined to connect these program’s participants to building careers, or even with jobs with suppliers involved in constructing high quality, high performance dwellings in the Portland area. This is the second PCEF-funded event by HBA and HBF this year. More than 80 trainees attended a Career Fair hosted by NW Natural in February, where they met with a dozen local employers about their futures in the residential building industry. With each training program offering three to four sessions a year, the PCEF grant provides opportunities to connect up to 700 people each year with to living wage jobs in sustainable construction.
If you’d like to help with workforce outreach like this, we invite you to join our HBA/HBF Workforce Development Advisory Group, which meets quarterly. Please contact HBF Executive Director Brenda Ketah, Brendak@hbapdx.org if you have any further questions.