C3 Awarded H-GAC Grant to continue existing program and create new ones

Angela Robbins-Taylor
Executive Director

​Breaking news for C3 comes in the form of a grant from the Houston-Galveston Area Board (H-GAC). The H-GAC focuses on assisting companies in attracting, training, and retaining workers. They felt that the C3 mission of strengthening a safe, skilled, and sustainable workforce was something their grant money could truly help push forward. The grant, renewable for three years, provides Construction Career Collaborative with the funding to hire additional staff to assist with our craft training consultations and to increase opportunities for construction companies to pursue excellence in workforce.

OSHA Training
When applying for the grant C3 strategically looked at barriers to entry and ongoing success of our participating Accredited Employers and aimed to provide programs to fill those gaps. Throughout our history, C3 has heard from those seeking to participate as Accredited Employers (AEs) that OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 for the entire workforce can be a hard hurdle to pass. As part of this grant, we are pleased to announce that starting in the 4th quarter we will be partnering with the AGC to offer one OSHA 10 each month to AEs seeking to skill their entire workforce. There will be no cost for this course to those who are Accredited Employers. OSHA 30 will be offered quarterly and will also be free. Need a session in Spanish - C3 seeks to add those in Q1 of 2022.

NCCER Training
Knowing that a key to sustainable change is to build programs and support those programs with people, C3 included two new NCCER courses in our grant proposal. As it has never been the goal of C3 to train craft workers these two programs focus on enabling companies to become truly self-sustaining in relation to providing in-house craft training programs for their own workforce. The first course is Mentoring for Craft Professionals, a 10-hour course focused on helping journey-level professionals or foremen better aid in the training and mentoring of newer employees. Used in combination with our competency mapping and on-the-job training programs, this course will help companies launch and maintain a stronger career path for the workforce.

With the advancement in craft training, it is clear that companies will need to have dedicated coverage of craft training in their office. To aid those who don't have direct expertise in workforce development, C3 will be offering the year-long certificate program, NCCER Construction Workforce Development Professional Certification. This course requires an application and letter of recommendation. If you are interested, please sign up soon, as spots are limited and filling quickly. You can find the application link here.

Industry Awareness Outreach
Finally understanding that best-in-class Human Resource practices and Craft Training programs are not enough to create a sustainable talent pipeline alone, the grant also allows C3 to hire an industry outreach specialist. This position will be responsible for creating stronger and more productive programs with students in ISDs, trade schools, and junior colleges. Our long-term goal with this position is to create a more positive image of construction as a career and to create strong conversion rates from school to career.

It is an exciting time at Construction Career Collaborative as this grant begins to impact the depth and breadth of our programming for the future. We are stepping closer to our mission of collaboratively strengthening and growing the safe, skilled, and sustainable craft workforce talent pipeline.

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