With a broad swath of the nation’s hard-working trade laborers entering retirement, it will be up to our career and technical education (CTE) providers to supply their most valuable product, skilled workers.
Harbor Freight Tools wants to ensure that these programs have the support to continue training this vital workforce. That’s why Harbor Freight Tools CEO Eric Smidt and the Smidt Foundation launched Harbor Freight Tools for Schools (HFTS). Since 2013, HFTS has given millions of dollars in donated tools, supplies and grants to underfunded programs around the country.
Skilled workers are highly prized and well-compensated. These jobs remain a significant career pathway to the middle class for students who do not plan on attending a four-year college. Plumbers and electricians, for example, can earn on average between $52,000 and $54,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
However, the scale at which CTE schools replace retiring workers is not enough to meet this demand. Declining interest in these programs and budget cutbacks, especially at the high school level, threaten to curtail the flow of new workers into the trades when we need them the most.
One sector that is projected to grow faster than the national average is construction. The industry was hit hard by the Great Recession and shed more than 1.5 million jobs. Though construction hiring has climbed, it hasn’t recovered to its previous strength.
Area Development reported findings from USG + U.S. Chamber of Commerce Commercial Construction Index which said that 65 percent of small contractors had difficulties finding skilled workers. Despite an uptick in construction hiring this year, the tight labor market is one of the leading factors contributing to a housing shortage.
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To combat this shortage, Harbor Freight Tools for Schools developed partnerships with Big Picture Learning, Real World Scholars and the Ventura County Office of Education Career Learning Center. These partnerships were made to enhance current CTE programs and attract more students who want to pursue alternative career pathways.
In 2017, the organization created the Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence. WorkingNation has shared their video of the three winners: Bob Kilmer of Enumclaw High School; Brendan Malone of Urban Assembly New York Harbor and Jonathan Schwartz of Colfax High School accepting the $100,000 award. In total, more than $500,000 was given to 10 CTE programs and teachers.
WorkingNation celebrates the companies that are making a difference in supporting CTE programs. We have highlighted the partnership between Snap-on Inc. and Gateway Technical College which provides state-of-the-art tools and equipment to train automotive mechanics. Our filmmakers also have featured the advanced manufacturing and 3D-printing training program offered by NC3 and Dremel.
We look forward to seeing what the future holds for Harbor Freight Tools for Schools and their next venture. To learn more about the organization, click here.
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Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.
