Addressing the Construction Labor Shortage Through Connected Secondary and Post-Secondary Construction Education Pathways: A Descriptive Case Study in Wyoming

11 pages•Published: December 11, 2023

Francois Jacobs, John Annor, Megan Jones, Jonathan Elliott and Rob Hill

Abstract

Despite a total population under 600,000, Wyoming’s jobs increased by 5,672 positions in 2018. Notably, more than 50% of this job growth was in the construction industry. Until 2019, there were no formal secondary construction education and training programs able to supply the necessary workforce to meet industry needs. Since 2019, Wyoming has been fortunate to build strong construction programs within their high school Career and Technical Education curricula and Community College programs. With the support of the Associated General Contractors of Wyoming, educators at each level have partnered with the University of Wyoming to pilot several collaborative efforts to increase curricular consistency and credit articulation that can culminate in a bachelor’s degree in Construction Management. A unique and major focus of the connected secondary to post-secondary construction education program is that it affords students the ability to exit and rejoin the educational pathway while concurrently gaining construction industry experience. This paper describes two programs piloted across educational levels in Wyoming. The use of the Zoom Meetings and Owl Pro technologies worked well to cultivate educational synergy between the classrooms located at each of the institutions across the state. Thus, the findings are helpful to those interested in connecting secondary and pos

Keyphrases: college credit articulation, construction labor shortage, post secondary education, secondary education, skills training

In: Tom Leathem, Wes Collins and Anthony Perrenoud (editors). Proceedings of 59th Annual Associated Schools of Construction International Conference, vol 4, pages 175-185.

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/5vKH
	https://doi.org/10.29007/hlw6

BibTeX entry

@inproceedings{ASC2023:Addressing_Construction_Labor_Shortage,
  author    = {Francois Jacobs and John Annor and Megan Jones and Jonathan Elliott and Rob Hill},
  title     = {Addressing the Construction Labor Shortage Through Connected Secondary and Post-Secondary Construction Education Pathways: A Descriptive Case Study in Wyoming},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of 59th Annual Associated Schools of Construction International Conference},
  editor    = {Tom Leathem and Wes Collins and Anthony Perrenoud},
  series    = {EPiC Series in Built Environment},
  volume    = {4},
  publisher = {EasyChair},
  bibsource = {EasyChair, https://easychair.org},
  issn      = {2632-881X},
  url       = {/publications/paper/5vKH},
  doi       = {10.29007/hlw6},
  pages     = {175-185},
  year      = {2023}}

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