The Metal Building Curriculum, Apprenticeship, and MBCEA Conference

As the MBCEA conference in Colorado Springs approaches in a couple weeks, I wanted to take a break from my usual offering of educational material on apprenticeship to encourage members who will be attending the conference to be sure to participate in the class on the metal building curriculum and its relationship to apprenticeship.  This session will be very informative and will demonstrate the exceptionally hard work people in MBCEA have been undertaking to develop a world class training program for metal building assembly.  It is this training program that will be the lynch pin of apprenticeship training for metal building assemblers and erectors going forward.

Developing a training and apprenticeship program for metal buildings is critical on a number of different levels.  Perhaps most importantly, an elite training program will ensure quality craftsmanship and that workers complete projects in the safest manner possible.  This will raise the level of performance for our members in the industry and help them stand out to customers and potential customers alike.  It’s also likely that this curriculum will eventually be part of the AC 478 program in some way.  Finally, participation in apprenticeship programs is becoming increasingly required to work on certain jobs.  While it’s predominantly been connected to public work in the form of PLAs and RCOs to date, similar arrangements have been made via agreement between owners and general contractors on private projects in recent years.  This curriculum and the apprenticeship program it will help create should allow members to meet such requirements.

In the end, the program covering the metal building curriculum and apprenticeship at the conference will offer a plethora of useful and timely information on these subjects.  I encourage you to attend.  You won’t regret it.