Free construction training program opens in Sacramento

California Construction News staff writer

Sacramento has a new trades school offering free training in construction.

BuildStrong Academy, a 12-week HBI initiative in partnership with the North State Building Industry Foundation, offers tuition-free construction career education and training with a focus on professional development, mentoring, the program includes hands-on training in carpentry and building – the first site in California set up to train more skilled laborers for entry-level jobs.

The greater Sacramento area continues to face challenges with homebuilding with hundreds of jobs going unfilled as workers retire and increases in mortgage rates impacting used housing sales and more new housing is needed. People need to be trained now before the crisis expands.

“Our goal is to empower individuals from diverse backgrounds with transformative opportunities in the homebuilding space and our partnership with the HBI allows us to continue to expand our training programs, adding more people to the workforce,” says Jennifer Poff, CAE, executive director of NSBIF.

Each student completes the program with an OSHA-10 safety certfication and are ready to be placed into a job when they graduate.

The program is structured in two parts with HBI’s Department of Labor pre-apprenticeship PACT curriculum as the intro and core components of the training followed by real hands-on workshop experience for the second half of the training.

“We are in a crisis which not only impacts home builders, but it also affects consumers and communites everywhere,” said Ed Brady, HBI president and CEO. “HBI is training the next generation of skilled workers and ensuring the supply of construction labor for several generations.”

The BuildStrong Academy is funded by The Home Depot Foundation and Jaggers Family Foundation.