My Fellow BYC Ambassadors and CAGC Members,The summer season is is quickly nearing its end and before we know it, school will be back in session. Now is the perfect time to begin planning your Contractors in the Classroom visits for the Fall 2019 school semester!  Over this past year, BYC has been building relationships with K-12 schools and their educators all across the Carolinas.  To date, we now have over 380 schools actively registered to participate in school/classroom visits from our BYC Ambassadors as part of the “Contractors in the Classroom” program.

In the June edition of Workforce Windup, a direct “call to action” was issued to all current BYC Ambassadors, as well as our CAGC member firms, to get registered and sign up to participate in the Build Your Career “Contractors in the Classroom” program.  As the dog days of summer are now upon us and our summer season is soon to be nearing its end, there’s no better time than the present to begin preparing for your Fall 2019 classroom and school visits!  The construction industry is undeniably suffering from a lack of skilled workers at all levels and as a result, our beloved industry is in desperate need of “champions” to fight for it to gain the recognition, respect and career interest from the masses that it rightfully deserves.

What better way to be a construction champion for our industry than by becoming an active BYC Ambassador on behalf of your company?   As an Ambassador, and through our numerous BYC outreach programs, you can get involved with your local schools to spread the “construction love” while sharing your vast industry knowledge with Carolinas region middle and high school students.  Conducting your classroom and school visits will now be even easier because your fully-loaded Ambassador toolkits, complete with all the comprehensive resources you could possibly need to effectively and easily promote construction careers to future generations of workers, are available for you!

Included in your Ambassador toolkits are several PowerPoint presentations that will give various ages of students a construction industry overview, career pathway information, an earning potential quiz and these PPTs are even completely editable!  Ambassadors are highly encouraged to edit the PPT slideshows, as well as many of the other available resources, by customizing them to reflect your company’s logo, website and contact information, career pathway info specific to your company.  This is also a great opportunity to include and advertise your company’s available internship/apprenticeship positions and job opportunities.

Additional resources available in the Ambassador toolkit include:

This open letter serves as an immediate “call to action” to each and every one of our loyal CAGC member firms.  Build Your Career needs your support and participation—and so does your industry. By registering your CAGC member firm to participate in the Contractors in the Classroom program and by nominating Ambassadors to lead BYC outreach efforts in your area on behalf of your company today, you are proactively leading the charge in guaranteeing the viability, success and the future of our industry for tomorrow!  Will you heed this call to action and sign the pledge (form accessible here) today to register as an Ambassador to be a “champion” for your industry?

Respectfully,

Betsy Bailey, CAE of Build Your Career

For more information on the CAGC Foundation’s Build Your Career workforce development initiative, our Contractors in the Classroom program, to volunteer to become a BYC Ambassador or to request your own onsite customized Ambassador training session, please visit our website or contact Betsy Bailey, via email at BBailey@CarolinasAGC.org or by phone at (704) 372-1450.To make a charitable contribution to BYC, please visit our secure online donation portal.