Homebuilder groups team up for apprenticeship school

Like building a house, the foundation must first be laid. 

That’s where the Suncoast Apprenticeship Academy stands, recently formed in collaboration of the Suncoast Builders Association and other industry partners to address the decades-growing threat of a shortage in tradespeople to meet demand.

The nonprofit organization has begun laying that foundation by putting under contract the former Perkins restaurant location near the interchange of I-75 and Fruitville Road, where it plans to first renovate and then expand the building to house a quick-term training facility to address needs in 10 trades disciplines.

The facility will serve as the future headquarters and primary training hub for the academy, providing hands-on education, industry-recognized certifications and direct career pathways in high-demand construction trades.

The program is targeted at those ages 18 and older seeking a career path alternative to those that require college and the often associated long-term debt. Plans are to offer a 12- to 15-week training curriculum.

Photo by Andrew Warfield

That may not begin until 2030. 

First, the foundation.

The academy has embarked on a $3.5 million capital campaign to cover the cost of renovation and expansion, Suncoast Builders Association board member and CEO of Lee Wetherington Homes David Hunihan told the Observer. The short-term goal is $1.5 million needed to close on the building. A $200,000 grant from the state of Florida has already been secured to meet that goal. Also, the Suncoast Builders Association has fronted $500,000, which will be reimbursed from the funds raised.

In addition to operating in alignment with the SBA, nationally recognized curriculum and workforce standards will be provided by the Home Builders Institute, early career pipeline development through Future Builders of America, and scholarship access supported by the Lloyd Williams Scholarship Fund of Sarasota and Manatee counties.

“This milestone reflects years of collaborative planning and a shared commitment to workforce readiness,” said Suncoast Builders Association CEO Jon Mast in a news release. “This is an innovative, community-driven solution to a regional challenge.”

Once renovation to the existing building is complete, Suncoast Builders Association will occupy offices there. That will be followed by the expansion that will approximately double the space and welcome its first class of students, Hunihan said, by 2030.

That will be quarter-century since the industry began identifying diminishing trades as an existential threat to construction as much of that workforce began approaching retirement age with few replacements prepared to take over.

"Here we are 20 years later, and in the interim two critically challenging things have happened,” Hunihan told the Observer. “One was the Great Recession, which put out of business any number of companies. And the second is that this generation of tradesmen are all aging out and there's not really a lot of people that are positioned to take over their companies. 

“So some of them are just going to close their doors and be gone forever.”

And gone with them the expertise needed for an industry having long fallen behind demand.

Not a traditional apprenticeship

The Suncoast Apprenticeship Academy will be a standalone, industry-specific program not affiliated with any college curriculum. Its students will move through within three to four months, after which they will go to work with a local contractor where they will receive additional on-the-job training.

“We aren't trying to compete with any other programs because, as far as I'm concerned, we could all be doing it and there's still not going to be enough to meet the demand,” Hunihan said. 

The academy’s professional affiliations will provide support and modeling for the program.

“Ultimately, the Homebuilders Institute is going to be helping us with the administration, because we're home builders. We can train and teach, but we're not educators from the standpoint of running a school, so we will have experts doing that.”

Part of refilling the pipeline with skilled trades is reaching prospective workers early. Hunihan invokes the famous line by bank robber Willie Sutton who, when asked why he robs banks, replied, “Because that’s where the money is.”

In this instance, schools are where the future tradespeople are.

“Anytime I can talk to young people about a career in the homebuilding business, I will be happy to do it,” he said. “We’ll go to the local schools to talk about it and present an alternative. We'll probably have a multi-stage program. There will be social media to target those age groups and we'll develop campaigns along those lines. I love that kind of opportunity.”