April 11, 2025 • 30 mins
With college debt becoming a major issue, many Gen-Z’ers are attracted to the trades as an alternative and as an immediate entrance to a rewarding and well-paying job. National Careers in Trades Week, which is April 7th through 11th, is a nationwide initiative to connect students with rewarding and lucrative jobs in the skilled trades. On this episode, we're learning more from the CEO of the non-profit Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association, known as SMACNA, Aaron Hilger about the rewarding benefits of the trades both personally and to the economy.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to Virginia Focus. I'm Rebecca Hughes of the Virginia
News Network. With college debt becoming a major issue, many
gen zers are attracted to the trades as an alternative
and as an immediate entrance into a rewarding and well
paying job. National Careers in Trades Week which was April
seventh through the eleventh, as a nationwide initiative to connect
(00:26):
students with rewarding and lucrative jobs in the skilled trades. Today,
we're going to learn more from the CEO of the
nonprofit sheet Metal and air Conditioning Contractors National Association called SMAGNA,
Aaron Hilger, to discuss the rewarding benefits of trades, both
personally and to the economy. Welcome to the show, mister Hilger.
(00:47):
I'm so glad you could join us today to talk
about this important topic of trades and our newest generations.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Thanks, Rebecca, I'm certainly happy to be here. It's a
wonderful topic with a lot of opportunities.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Definitely, why don't you start by telling people a little
bit about your journey that led you to the position
you're in now and what makes you the authority on
this topic.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Certainly.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So today I am the CEO of SMACKNA, the Sheet
Mental and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association. Obviously, I didn't
start there a very long time ago. My family was
in the construction industry, and you know, I worked in
the building trades. I had the great fortune of growing
up in a family business where I got to do
(01:32):
just about every job, from sweeping the warehouse floor to
loading trucks to working on cruise and eventually I ran
the operations of our company. I've been managing associations professionally,
mostly in the construction industry, for more than twenty years.
So I spent a lot of time in workforce development,
a lot of time with apprenticeship programs, and I'm seen
a lot of growth and change over the years.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
That sounds amazing. So today we're talking about the gen
Zers and how they're kind of choosing trades over going
into debt for college, you know, depending on what they
want to do in the future. But trades are pretty
hot right now and making really good money. Can you
kind of give us a background on what led us
(02:15):
to that being the situation?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Certainly, you know, I think one of the things that
have changed and I've been working on sort of workforce
development for twenty or twenty five years.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
If I think back about ten years ago, if we
went to a local high school and I'm from upstate
New York, so in upstate New York, and we said,
you know, jeez, we'd like to come to your career
day with our apprenticeship program and talk about construction careers.
We were usually given the stiff arm and said, you know,
we're not really interested in that. And that makes sense
because high school administrators are you know, graded on the
(02:50):
number of kids who go to college, not the number
of kids who get a great job right after high school.
What has been nice is in the last you know,
three to five years, we've seen a big change amongst
high schools where we're more likely to be welcomed in.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
And I think that's in.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Part because of the cost of a college education. When
I went to school way too many years ago, you know,
an expensive college was twenty thousand dollars a year. You know,
that same school is now over eighty thousand dollars a year.
So I think that's opened up some parents and some
students' mind about you know, what is the ROI and
what are the other paths that maybe I should consider.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. And also too many
years ago. I can remember being in high school and
we had trades that were taught in the high school,
like they taught you automotive tech, and we had woodworking,
and we had cosmetology and all these different things, so
you could kind of dip your toes into the industry
(03:46):
in a safe way, I guess in high school, and
those things have kind of all disappeared as well. I
love that you pointed out that it's because you know,
administrators are graded on how many kids go to college.
But I think that was a disservice, don't you think.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Very much?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So you know our traditional you know, more older high
school programming, right, I guess when you and I went
to high school, because it sounds like it was about
the same timeframe. There were autoshop classes, there were introductory
carpentry classes. Some schools might have had electrical programs. You know,
in upstate New York, you had grade schools like Edison
Tech who had full building trades curriculum for carpentry and
(04:27):
masonry and electrical work, and the trades hired right out
of those schools. Most of those programs have died at
the sacrifice of algebra or whatever other topic was important.
And all those topics are important, but I think we've
really done a disservice to kids who otherwise wouldn't have
had an opportunity to explore a different path.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Right now, you said you were talking about apprenticeships. I
have three children, and my youngest one graduated high school
back last spring, and he's interested in apprenticeship. They've apparently
become a little hard to get into nowadays, or has
that always been the case.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I think it kind of depends on where you are
in the trade that you're interested in. When you think
about the building trades and apprenticeship, there's an orchestra that
builds a building or even just your house. Right there's
laborers and carpenters and bricklayers and HVAC workers who we
work with, and my contractors do plumbers and electricians and roofers, right,
the whole band that has to get together to build
(05:30):
a house. And at any given time, any one of
those programs might be more full than another program. But
I think the important point today would be that there
are probably about four hundred thousand job openings in the
construction industry, So there's quite a bit of space available
right for suit careers.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yeah, and we're seeing that actually across the board. I mean,
we've got shortage of nurses, we've got shortage of doctors,
shortage of veterinarians, shortage of plumbers and like you said,
HVAC all these things. Are we having a shortage of
peace people? Are we having a shortage of people going
into the workforce? What do you think is happening?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Well, you have a combination of factors. If you look
specifically at the construction industry, we've had a large spike
in demand with all of these what we call mega projects,
products that are over a billion dollars that are in
a large factory footprints so or even large pharmaceutical or
hospital footprints that grew out of the prior administration.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
So we're staffing a lot of projects there.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
And at the same time, the baby boomers are retiring,
and this impacts all of the different professions that you
have spoken with you mentioned. So if you think about
an increase in demand for work and a lot of
your workers retiring at the same time, that creates a
real crunch in your workforce and it requires you to
be creative about filling those jobs.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Okay, and when you talk about that creativity, I mean
the other thing we've kind of looked at is this
younger generation. They're not just rushing out and getting married
and having babies right away. Like I have one child
who kind of did that. The other two have not
done that at all. I've got one that's, you know,
now on the thirty side of her twenties and she's
(07:09):
not sure she ever wants to have kids. What are
the creative ways we are filling these jobs? Are we
using AI or are we changing the way we do things?
Speaker 2 (07:19):
So specific to construction and things like the mega projects
that we've been dealing with, we have a strong partnership
with Smart, which is our union partner, and for those projects,
we've really thrown away the prey book. You know, the
sort of the traditional path would be we recruit a
bunch of people into the apprenticeship program, we start training them,
and then you know, three to five years, they're really
(07:40):
skilled workers and they obviously work during that timeframe.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
We're now bringing in a lot.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Of people to service these projects that might have a
single skill set, maybe they worked at a CNC manufacturer
before or you know, had some sort of related experience
that we can help shape them into a building trades worker.
And maybe they come in as a different type of
classification and then eventually joined the apprenticeship program or eventually
become a journey person. So we've really kind of turned
(08:05):
some of the story on its head. I think in
terms of, you know, more broadly recruiting for the industry,
you're seeing a lot of associations and a lot of contractors.
They're showing up at job fairs, They're talking to parents,
they're at the soccer game. You know, if you have
to be running construction company and there's a bunch of
other kids and parents around, you might be talking to
those parents. But hey, what's your son doing after college
(08:27):
or what your daughter are doing after college? Because we
have these jobs or after high school, we have these
jobs right here. So I think you're seeing kind of
a wide open playbook at this point.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Okay, and do you think a lot of that is
driven by the cost of college or do you think
people are realizing And I can say this just I'm
basing this solely on my own opinion. I went to college,
and I went to a little bit more expensive college,
and I look back and I still had to be
taught by the elders, if you want to call it that,
(08:58):
in my industry what to do, because even though the
college classes were great, I still wasn't ready and had
all the knowledge to join the workforce the way that
I probably should have. And it's not that the college.
You know, the college classes were great, but I took
more language, and I took more science and math and
all these things that had nothing to do with what
(09:20):
I'm doing, and had to take humanities and to take pe.
And people are looking at that and going, why, like,
do you think we're going to see an overhaul of education? Uh?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
The short answer to that long, very long question is yes,
I think we will see some resets over time, because
the same demographics impact high schools and colleges that impact businesses. Yeah,
the shifting number of kids who are the smaller number
of kids who are going to be in colleges and
universities are going to force colleges and universities to compete
(09:54):
for relevance. Like you, I'm the product of a fantastic
college education. I have two master's degrees. I'm still friends
with a number of the professors that I had the
great opportunity to learn from. I loved that entire experience.
A large portion of it, though probably isn't relevant to
the things that I do today, some of it is
very relevant. And I think for you know, kids, who
(10:18):
are you starting this adventure? And in some cases they're.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
More than kids. There are people who have completed a
bachelor's degree.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
They're looking around and saying, what is the best job
I can get, whether I've engaged in that degree or not.
And sometimes they're joining the building trades. So I think
there's a lot of shifts happening right now, and I
think there is a great question about what is a
relevant education going forward, because the primary purpose of college,
(10:46):
at least at some level, is to prove to a
future employer you can show up to the same place
four years in a row, four years in a row
and perform reasonably well.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Right right, let me shift gears a little bit. You know,
when we were growing up, the generation before us was like,
you know, you're lazy and you don't do anything. And
when I was your age, fill in the blank. And
now we're that generation, and i've heard rumblings of you know,
gen Z is lazy, and blah blah blah. Are there
(11:16):
any obstacles for gen Z getting into some of these
trades where it's not sitting behind a desk all the time,
you know, playing on a computer. It's very physical. Have
we encountered any obstacles from that generation.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I had? First?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
On the generational plane, I think every generation looks at
the one behind them and says, while they stink, and
there's something wrong with them, right, and they're not us right.
That seems to happen over and over again.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
And I know.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Exactly how the gen extras like us were treated. I
think the.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Obstacles for the younger generations today are a little bit
different than they were, or say, the extras of the boomers,
And they're mostly about experience. A lot of families, you know,
don't do their own home repairs any longer. They may
not have a father or a grandfather or mother or
whomever who is a handy person who knows how to
(12:09):
use tools right.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
So I had the great.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Fortune of having a father and a grandfather who are
really skilled construction people. So I learned how to do
all these different all these different work and all these
different trades and skills. When I was really little. I
didn't even know I was learning it, right, So I
think if you're, you know, growing up in a digital
age and your main tool is your iPhone, when you
start in a building trades career and someone hands you
(12:32):
a shovel, that's kind of a foreign object, right, or
you know, how do we use this saw? And how
do I use this sauce safely? Thankfully, that's all stuff
we can teach you and are happy.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
To teach you.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Okay. When somebody comes to get an apprenticeship, what kind
of things, what kind of experiences do they need to
have or do they have to have any at all?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
So typically there's a some there's some basic table states things, right,
So you have to have a driver's license and reliable transportation.
If you're working in the building trade, your job sites
are going to vary. You're going to have to have
the ability to get to those job sites. That may
be different if you live in a major metropolitan area
and most things are accessible via metro or bus. But
(13:11):
for the most part, you need to have reliable transportation,
and that is one of the number one failure points
in terms of qualifications.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Most programs.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Apprenticeship programs require high school graduation, but not all of
them do. And most programs also rank candidates. You know,
if you have forty slots, they're going to have some
sort of scoring mechanism that you know, grates you on
attitude and aptitude. And you know, if you've had prior
construction experience, you know, even if you've just simply worked
(13:39):
in a landscaping crew while you were a kid, or
you know, maybe you've worked for a year or so
right after high school with a residential firm of some sort.
So we're going to measure the things that you've had
and learned and know, you really don't have to have experience,
but a little experience certainly helps.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Okay, So if there's any parents or high schoolers that
would be listening right now, would you recommend they try
to dip their toe in the water, so to speak,
even in high school or wait, I would.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Think to the extent that you can just take an
extra class. You know, if there's a local community college
or a local trades program that you can pop into,
or an introductory class that maybe the billion trades are
running in your area, try to apply to that program
and take part in it. You know, if you can
work in a more physical field to get an idea
of what it feels like as a as a high
(14:30):
school kid, you know, doing even you know, yard work
and things like that. You know, it shows an aptitude
and a desire to work. So really any job is good,
but you know, taking taking some times try to get
exposed to construction is great. We also have, you know,
around the country. One of our partner organizations runs a
fantastic program called the Heavy Metal Summer Experience, and that
(14:53):
is an exposure program. We have about forty three of
those this year. And if you're around a program like that,
try to you know, fly and get in.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Okay, that sounds really cool. Can you tell us a
little more about that program how it works.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
So, this program was Heavy Metal Summer Experience was created
by Angie Simon and a couple of her business partners
three or four years ago now, and you know, the
idea of it was is can we have you know,
a kind of a summer camp for the construction industry
that's focused on you know, sheet metal and at times
also the mechanical side of the industry, the pipe fitting
side of the industry. So the program actually it varies
(15:30):
a little bit by location. It could be hosted at
a contractor's office or at a apprenticeship program or a
joint facility, and the program will give the students a
number of experiences throughout a week or two, depending on
how it's set up, you know, learning some basic safety,
learning how to use some basic hand tools, you know,
finishing a project or two, maybe making a neat toolbox
(15:51):
or a Christmas tree or something interesting out of sheet metal,
so that you get an idea of you know, what
is it like to be in the construct industry and
work in a shop, and you could have a like
a virtual welding experience or really kind of anything that
we can think of.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Okay, that sounds amazing. Let me ask you this. I
know again, many many years ago, growing up, blue collar
jobs were kind of known. If you're going to get
started and you're the new guy, you're kind of gonna
get picked on, You're gonna get harassed. They're gonna, you know,
tell you to go get the blinker fluid when you're
work at a shop, you know, working on cars, stuff
(16:28):
like that. Is that still the case?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
You know?
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Unfortunately?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I think there are elements of that in every industry
and the new guy always gets picked on.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Smack and Smart together have a.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Program called Bee for All, which is about culture on
your job sites. And you know, our desire is to
make sure that all of our job sites and all
of our apprenticeship programs are welcoming and open to all,
and there really is no place for that kind of harassment.
I mean, I grew up with roofers. They were great people.
They were also pretty mean. If you showed a little
(17:02):
bit of weakness, you were going to get picked on, right,
it didn't matter what it was. Kind of exactly what
you described. I think constructor the construction industry has lost
too many people because of that, and we're taking strong
steps to make sure we don't need moore.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Okay, awesome. So if a young person is listening and
they're like, yeah, I like the idea of building something,
then how do you recommend they narrowed down what their
actual interest is, Because, like you said, it takes a
whole orchestra to build a house. There's a lot of
different trades involved in that. How do you figure out,
as a young person which one is your interest.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
There's a couple of different ways to do that. If
you're fortunate enough to live in a community that has
a strong local construction association that does a construction career day,
try to get into a program like that, because those
will try to give you exposure to all the different trades.
You can also take some time to visit your local
building trade unions and talk to the people who work
(17:57):
there and maybe tour their apprenticeship program. They're happy to
share the great things that they do in terms of
how they treat how they teach people different trades. If
you happen to know a local contractor, or if your
parents are and have some friends in that space, go
talk to that individual, see if you can chattel them
for a day, and maybe to our job site to
(18:19):
try to get a little bit of exposure about things
that happen.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Okay, and if you're an adult and you're thinking about
changing careers, is is it ever too late to get
into the construction fields.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
It's certainly not too late. I mean, at some point
as you get older, it probably is too late. But
you know, if you've started a career and you've decided
that isn't right for you, then absolutely you can explore
a career in the building trades and your experience and know,
their career might be very relevant to the things you'll
be doing in the trades. So if you think about
the construction industry, you know, we're often focus on just
(18:57):
the jobs in the field, the laborers and brickies and
HVAC folks and electricians and whatnot.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
That work there.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
We also have the full scope of other jobs, whether
that's project managers, estimators, accountants, HR people, administrative assistants. You know,
these are companies like any other. So there's a wide
array of opportunities. And you know, one of our pinch
points today is that office support staff. We're really we've
done a great job of growing our field workforce, which
still needs work, but we also have to grow the
(19:25):
office support so we can keep doing more jobs.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Oh that's interesting. I didn't know that. Okay, that's good
to know. Let's shift gears and talk about what is
the Careers in Trades Week.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
So Careers in Trades Week was a program that you know,
we started with a few of our partners to take
some time to do things exactly like this.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
I don't think we have.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Talked about the construction industry enough, and we haven't talked
about the great opportunities the whole concept of you know,
learning and earning at the same time are things we
have to create more awareness of, and a career and
trades week, you know, kind of focuses our attention on
talking about the industry and talking about the great opportunities
that we have.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Okay, I love that. And is that partially because again
mainly in our generation, there was like this stigma almost
against blue collar jobs. Is that part of what this
is about or is this literally just more for recruitment.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
It's both. You're correct. In our generation, Oh my god,
you've got a blue collar job. That's bad.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I think that's ridiculous because you're never going to outsource
your plumber.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
You're never going to outsource the people.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Doing the jobs that you know that build houses and
build apartment buildings and build you know, giant commercial structures.
You know, those jobs are here to stay. They're changing,
they're technologically interesting, they're challenging, and they pay really, really well.
They're better than a lot of the white collar jobs.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I mean, yeah, you
might be able to be indoors, but in my experience
with that, there's a thing called office winter, and you
freeze your butt off in the summertime.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
As someone who's probably responsible for office winter, I love
that cold. But I completely understand where you're coming from,
and you know it is you know, if you're doing
a career in the trades, you know one of the
things you do have to think about is it's hot
in the summer, it's cold in the winter. You're going
to be exposed to elements. And if you're not mentally
prepared for that or don't like that, it's not the
career for you.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
It's not a barrier. It's just something you have to
be prepared for.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Right, That's what I was about to say. I mean,
it may be a shock at first, but isn't that
something you can kind of work your way into.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, you can absolutely work your way into that. And
you know it's warm out, you get used to it,
and contractors are really good at managing heat and managing
heat expectations.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Similarly with cold, same thing.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
There are certain jobs you can't do when it's freezing
out and snowing, and there are the jobs you can
do and those might be more indoors. So that's something
that you know if you're in an apprenticeship program. I
don't think we explicitly teach that, but you're gonna learn
it because you're gonna watch what everybody else is.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Doing, right for sure? And I know I'm pretty sure
I know the answer to this, but I'm gonna ask
it anyway. Have we also seen an increase in what
people like to call diversity in the construction industry, meaning
not just different you know, races, but also genders and
things of that nature.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Very much.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
So it's certainly a growing trend that you'll see generational
shifts and who's in an industry. If you look at
the history of the construction industry and the history of
billion trade unions, you know, you can trace it, you know,
from Germans to Irish to Italians and now you see
a lot more Hispanics and African Americans, right, So those
changes happen over time. My view of the industry as
(22:50):
it's open to everyone and we need everyone to fill
all these jobs.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yeah, definitely, very much. I agree. When talking about gen
Z again, do you well, let me ask you this,
do you have any children.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
I actually have triplets that are sophomores in college. So wow,
like you, I'm kind of in that realm of you know,
watching all these things happen, and we certainly explored construction
careers when they were younger.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Their pasts were different than that those paths.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Okay, so you knew where my questions were going.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, so I have one in music school. I've got
you know, one who's you know, doing English and is
fluent in languages, and another who's you know, very much
a nerd like me who likes government and economics, so
very different disciplines. But you know, they're on their own
past and they really seem to like them.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yeah, and like you said, some of those things, maybe
not all, but some of those things, if they wanted to,
they could come back and use in the construction industry
in some form.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Right absolutely. I mean, my bachelor's degree is in political
science and psychology. I have a master's degree in applied
politics or political management, and an MBA. I still worked
in the construction industry. I ran a you know, ran
a family construction business, and I have been representing contractors
for twenty five years. So the degrees are things that
(24:12):
you learn, you become an expert down or you learn
certain topics that help you in your career.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
They don't define your career.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Right, I agree with that. So your organization also is
involved in the legislative things that affect your industry, correct,
very much, so, yes, Okay, So is there anything going
on right now in the legislature, in Congress or anything
like that that we need to be aware of.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
You know, at a ten thousand foot level, the construction
industry has a very bright outlook from an employment perspective.
There are lots of large projects on the horizon. There
are lots of demands for college and university struction, hospital construction.
You know, the sort of breadth of the industry is good.
(25:05):
That demand can change, and those demand functions can change
if the country has a recession or has some sort
of you know, negative economic period. Obviously, the extent to
which tariffs trigger a recession that could impact the construction industry.
Maybe tariffs increased trade over time too. We'll have to
wait and see how that plays out.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Okay, are there any other things that would affect anything
to do with construction that we you know, you might
want public support for that we can maybe get behind you.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
And I think the UH, I think one of the
most important things is, you know, for the future of
the economy and for the construction industry is solving the
nation's power problem. You know, we happen to be in
northern Virginia, which is where Smack is located, where I
live now, and there's a moratorium on, you know, building
new data centers because there's no power to hook them
(25:56):
up to for the next five or seven years. Right,
we have to figure out a way to build either
small nuclear plants or natural gas plants in an efficient
manner so we can keep the economy growing. So, I
think from a public support perspective, I'm really interested in
the long term game, and that long term game is
making sure that we have great sources of clean power
(26:18):
that are available twenty four to seven. Renewables are fine,
and they certainly have a place in the industry, but
we need that steady state power to keep economic growth
going and to reshore manufacturing.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah, I definitely agree with that, And I wanted to
ask you in regards to that. Have you heard of
the hydrogen power sources, fuel cells, and things of that nature.
They're really big right now.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
They're very big. They're very interesting.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
I don't know a lot about them, but I'm sure
they're going to be part of the solution.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yeah. I think so too. I can't remember which country
it is, but one country has devoted to changing all
of their power grid over to hydrogen, you know, through
the next how many ever tens of year. But yeah,
I'm anxious to see how that plays out and anxious
to see if that, you know, translates into even tools,
because right now I think the options are gas power
(27:11):
or electric right.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Pretty much?
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yeah, you're seeing you know that your your big tool manufacturers,
Milwaukee Tool, du Walt, Cobalt, they all have, you know,
fantastic you know, battery operated options, which are really the
electric tools. Some of them obviously plug in, but most
contractors are going to use battery tools if they're an option,
because they're a lot more portable. The extent to which
(27:35):
that technology grows and changes and becomes more efficient is
really good for us.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Yeah, and as far as the way things are done,
are there any technological advances being made that we should
know about a construction?
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Is really cool right now, And particularly if you're a
technology nerd, you know the number of drones and imaging
devices and things that we're using on up sites now
to solve problems is very very interesting. How we use
software to coordinate work both in the production shop and
(28:10):
in the field is an ever changing environment that's getting
stronger and stronger. You know, construction. People think of construction,
they think of, you know, a bunch of laborers, you know,
standing around with a shovel and a bunch of hammers,
right and doing manual work. That certainly is part of construction.
But there's also all of this technology that we're using.
And you might be looking at the plans for the
(28:32):
building on your iPad and then you know, telling a
robot to go move that piece of machinery or equipment,
you know, from spot A to spot B on that iPad.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
So there's a whole.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Bunch of changes that are happening, which if you join
the industry today, you're kind of get you kind of
get to be on the front.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Lines of that.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Sounds amazing. We're coming up to the end of our time.
But I want to ask you this question. I'm just curious.
You're the expert. Is there anything else that the audience
needs to know before we say goodbye? I just didn't
know to ask you about.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I think that the biggest thing that I want to
leave people with is that you know, you need to
find the career that is right for you. That career
could be in the construction industry, That could career could
be after college and whatever thing it is. But I
encourage parents and students and young people and people who
finish college to have an open mind and to look
around at the options that are available to them, and
(29:24):
you know, make good decisions about what.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
You want to do.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
I love it. Thank you so much for your time
today and sharing your expertise. I really do appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Thank you for having me, Rebecca. I very much enjoyed
the conversation.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I hope you've enjoyed today's show. Thanks for tuning into
the show on your favorite local radio station. You can
now listen to this show or past shows through the
iheartapp or on iHeart dot com. Just search for Virginia
Focus under podcasts. I'm Rebecca Hughes with the Virginia News Network,
and I'll be here next week on Virginia Focus.
Welcome to Virginia Focus. I'm Rebecca Hughes of the Virginia
News Network. With college debt becoming a major issue, many
gen zers are attracted to the trades as an alternative
and as an immediate entrance into a rewarding and well
paying job. National Careers in Trades Week which was April
seventh through the eleventh, as a nationwide initiative to connect
(00:26):
students with rewarding and lucrative jobs in the skilled trades. Today,
we're going to learn more from the CEO of the
nonprofit sheet Metal and air Conditioning Contractors National Association called SMAGNA,
Aaron Hilger, to discuss the rewarding benefits of trades, both
personally and to the economy. Welcome to the show, mister Hilger.
(00:47):
I'm so glad you could join us today to talk
about this important topic of trades and our newest generations.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Thanks, Rebecca, I'm certainly happy to be here. It's a
wonderful topic with a lot of opportunities.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Definitely, why don't you start by telling people a little
bit about your journey that led you to the position
you're in now and what makes you the authority on
this topic.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Certainly.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So today I am the CEO of SMACKNA, the Sheet
Mental and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association. Obviously, I didn't
start there a very long time ago. My family was
in the construction industry, and you know, I worked in
the building trades. I had the great fortune of growing
up in a family business where I got to do
(01:32):
just about every job, from sweeping the warehouse floor to
loading trucks to working on cruise and eventually I ran
the operations of our company. I've been managing associations professionally,
mostly in the construction industry, for more than twenty years.
So I spent a lot of time in workforce development,
a lot of time with apprenticeship programs, and I'm seen
a lot of growth and change over the years.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
That sounds amazing. So today we're talking about the gen
Zers and how they're kind of choosing trades over going
into debt for college, you know, depending on what they
want to do in the future. But trades are pretty
hot right now and making really good money. Can you
kind of give us a background on what led us
(02:15):
to that being the situation?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Certainly, you know, I think one of the things that
have changed and I've been working on sort of workforce
development for twenty or twenty five years.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
If I think back about ten years ago, if we
went to a local high school and I'm from upstate
New York, so in upstate New York, and we said,
you know, jeez, we'd like to come to your career
day with our apprenticeship program and talk about construction careers.
We were usually given the stiff arm and said, you know,
we're not really interested in that. And that makes sense
because high school administrators are you know, graded on the
(02:50):
number of kids who go to college, not the number
of kids who get a great job right after high school.
What has been nice is in the last you know,
three to five years, we've seen a big change amongst
high schools where we're more likely to be welcomed in.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
And I think that's in.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Part because of the cost of a college education. When
I went to school way too many years ago, you know,
an expensive college was twenty thousand dollars a year. You know,
that same school is now over eighty thousand dollars a year.
So I think that's opened up some parents and some
students' mind about you know, what is the ROI and
what are the other paths that maybe I should consider.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. And also too many
years ago. I can remember being in high school and
we had trades that were taught in the high school,
like they taught you automotive tech, and we had woodworking,
and we had cosmetology and all these different things, so
you could kind of dip your toes into the industry
(03:46):
in a safe way, I guess in high school, and
those things have kind of all disappeared as well. I
love that you pointed out that it's because you know,
administrators are graded on how many kids go to college.
But I think that was a disservice, don't you think.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Very much?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So you know our traditional you know, more older high
school programming, right, I guess when you and I went
to high school, because it sounds like it was about
the same timeframe. There were autoshop classes, there were introductory
carpentry classes. Some schools might have had electrical programs. You know,
in upstate New York, you had grade schools like Edison
Tech who had full building trades curriculum for carpentry and
(04:27):
masonry and electrical work, and the trades hired right out
of those schools. Most of those programs have died at
the sacrifice of algebra or whatever other topic was important.
And all those topics are important, but I think we've
really done a disservice to kids who otherwise wouldn't have
had an opportunity to explore a different path.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Right now, you said you were talking about apprenticeships. I
have three children, and my youngest one graduated high school
back last spring, and he's interested in apprenticeship. They've apparently
become a little hard to get into nowadays, or has
that always been the case.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I think it kind of depends on where you are
in the trade that you're interested in. When you think
about the building trades and apprenticeship, there's an orchestra that
builds a building or even just your house. Right there's
laborers and carpenters and bricklayers and HVAC workers who we
work with, and my contractors do plumbers and electricians and roofers, right,
the whole band that has to get together to build
(05:30):
a house. And at any given time, any one of
those programs might be more full than another program. But
I think the important point today would be that there
are probably about four hundred thousand job openings in the
construction industry, So there's quite a bit of space available
right for suit careers.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yeah, and we're seeing that actually across the board. I mean,
we've got shortage of nurses, we've got shortage of doctors,
shortage of veterinarians, shortage of plumbers and like you said,
HVAC all these things. Are we having a shortage of
peace people? Are we having a shortage of people going
into the workforce? What do you think is happening?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Well, you have a combination of factors. If you look
specifically at the construction industry, we've had a large spike
in demand with all of these what we call mega projects,
products that are over a billion dollars that are in
a large factory footprints so or even large pharmaceutical or
hospital footprints that grew out of the prior administration.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
So we're staffing a lot of projects there.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
And at the same time, the baby boomers are retiring,
and this impacts all of the different professions that you
have spoken with you mentioned. So if you think about
an increase in demand for work and a lot of
your workers retiring at the same time, that creates a
real crunch in your workforce and it requires you to
be creative about filling those jobs.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Okay, and when you talk about that creativity, I mean
the other thing we've kind of looked at is this
younger generation. They're not just rushing out and getting married
and having babies right away. Like I have one child
who kind of did that. The other two have not
done that at all. I've got one that's, you know,
now on the thirty side of her twenties and she's
(07:09):
not sure she ever wants to have kids. What are
the creative ways we are filling these jobs? Are we
using AI or are we changing the way we do things?
Speaker 2 (07:19):
So specific to construction and things like the mega projects
that we've been dealing with, we have a strong partnership
with Smart, which is our union partner, and for those projects,
we've really thrown away the prey book. You know, the
sort of the traditional path would be we recruit a
bunch of people into the apprenticeship program, we start training them,
and then you know, three to five years, they're really
(07:40):
skilled workers and they obviously work during that timeframe.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
We're now bringing in a lot.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Of people to service these projects that might have a
single skill set, maybe they worked at a CNC manufacturer
before or you know, had some sort of related experience
that we can help shape them into a building trades worker.
And maybe they come in as a different type of
classification and then eventually joined the apprenticeship program or eventually
become a journey person. So we've really kind of turned
(08:05):
some of the story on its head. I think in
terms of, you know, more broadly recruiting for the industry,
you're seeing a lot of associations and a lot of contractors.
They're showing up at job fairs, They're talking to parents,
they're at the soccer game. You know, if you have
to be running construction company and there's a bunch of
other kids and parents around, you might be talking to
those parents. But hey, what's your son doing after college
(08:27):
or what your daughter are doing after college? Because we
have these jobs or after high school, we have these
jobs right here. So I think you're seeing kind of
a wide open playbook at this point.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Okay, and do you think a lot of that is
driven by the cost of college or do you think
people are realizing And I can say this just I'm
basing this solely on my own opinion. I went to college,
and I went to a little bit more expensive college,
and I look back and I still had to be
taught by the elders, if you want to call it that,
(08:58):
in my industry what to do, because even though the
college classes were great, I still wasn't ready and had
all the knowledge to join the workforce the way that
I probably should have. And it's not that the college.
You know, the college classes were great, but I took
more language, and I took more science and math and
all these things that had nothing to do with what
(09:20):
I'm doing, and had to take humanities and to take pe.
And people are looking at that and going, why, like,
do you think we're going to see an overhaul of education? Uh?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
The short answer to that long, very long question is yes,
I think we will see some resets over time, because
the same demographics impact high schools and colleges that impact businesses. Yeah,
the shifting number of kids who are the smaller number
of kids who are going to be in colleges and
universities are going to force colleges and universities to compete
(09:54):
for relevance. Like you, I'm the product of a fantastic
college education. I have two master's degrees. I'm still friends
with a number of the professors that I had the
great opportunity to learn from. I loved that entire experience.
A large portion of it, though probably isn't relevant to
the things that I do today, some of it is
very relevant. And I think for you know, kids, who
(10:18):
are you starting this adventure? And in some cases they're.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
More than kids. There are people who have completed a
bachelor's degree.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
They're looking around and saying, what is the best job
I can get, whether I've engaged in that degree or not.
And sometimes they're joining the building trades. So I think
there's a lot of shifts happening right now, and I
think there is a great question about what is a
relevant education going forward, because the primary purpose of college,
(10:46):
at least at some level, is to prove to a
future employer you can show up to the same place
four years in a row, four years in a row
and perform reasonably well.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Right right, let me shift gears a little bit. You know,
when we were growing up, the generation before us was like,
you know, you're lazy and you don't do anything. And
when I was your age, fill in the blank. And
now we're that generation, and i've heard rumblings of you know,
gen Z is lazy, and blah blah blah. Are there
(11:16):
any obstacles for gen Z getting into some of these
trades where it's not sitting behind a desk all the time,
you know, playing on a computer. It's very physical. Have
we encountered any obstacles from that generation.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I had? First?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
On the generational plane, I think every generation looks at
the one behind them and says, while they stink, and
there's something wrong with them, right, and they're not us right.
That seems to happen over and over again.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
And I know.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Exactly how the gen extras like us were treated. I
think the.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Obstacles for the younger generations today are a little bit
different than they were, or say, the extras of the boomers,
And they're mostly about experience. A lot of families, you know,
don't do their own home repairs any longer. They may
not have a father or a grandfather or mother or
whomever who is a handy person who knows how to
(12:09):
use tools right.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
So I had the great.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Fortune of having a father and a grandfather who are
really skilled construction people. So I learned how to do
all these different all these different work and all these
different trades and skills. When I was really little. I
didn't even know I was learning it, right, So I
think if you're, you know, growing up in a digital
age and your main tool is your iPhone, when you
start in a building trades career and someone hands you
(12:32):
a shovel, that's kind of a foreign object, right, or
you know, how do we use this saw? And how
do I use this sauce safely? Thankfully, that's all stuff
we can teach you and are happy.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
To teach you.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Okay. When somebody comes to get an apprenticeship, what kind
of things, what kind of experiences do they need to
have or do they have to have any at all?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
So typically there's a some there's some basic table states things, right,
So you have to have a driver's license and reliable transportation.
If you're working in the building trade, your job sites
are going to vary. You're going to have to have
the ability to get to those job sites. That may
be different if you live in a major metropolitan area
and most things are accessible via metro or bus. But
(13:11):
for the most part, you need to have reliable transportation,
and that is one of the number one failure points
in terms of qualifications.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Most programs.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Apprenticeship programs require high school graduation, but not all of
them do. And most programs also rank candidates. You know,
if you have forty slots, they're going to have some
sort of scoring mechanism that you know, grates you on
attitude and aptitude. And you know, if you've had prior
construction experience, you know, even if you've just simply worked
(13:39):
in a landscaping crew while you were a kid, or
you know, maybe you've worked for a year or so
right after high school with a residential firm of some sort.
So we're going to measure the things that you've had
and learned and know, you really don't have to have experience,
but a little experience certainly helps.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Okay, So if there's any parents or high schoolers that
would be listening right now, would you recommend they try
to dip their toe in the water, so to speak,
even in high school or wait, I would.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Think to the extent that you can just take an
extra class. You know, if there's a local community college
or a local trades program that you can pop into,
or an introductory class that maybe the billion trades are
running in your area, try to apply to that program
and take part in it. You know, if you can
work in a more physical field to get an idea
of what it feels like as a as a high
(14:30):
school kid, you know, doing even you know, yard work
and things like that. You know, it shows an aptitude
and a desire to work. So really any job is good,
but you know, taking taking some times try to get
exposed to construction is great. We also have, you know,
around the country. One of our partner organizations runs a
fantastic program called the Heavy Metal Summer Experience, and that
(14:53):
is an exposure program. We have about forty three of
those this year. And if you're around a program like that,
try to you know, fly and get in.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Okay, that sounds really cool. Can you tell us a
little more about that program how it works.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
So, this program was Heavy Metal Summer Experience was created
by Angie Simon and a couple of her business partners
three or four years ago now, and you know, the
idea of it was is can we have you know,
a kind of a summer camp for the construction industry
that's focused on you know, sheet metal and at times
also the mechanical side of the industry, the pipe fitting
side of the industry. So the program actually it varies
(15:30):
a little bit by location. It could be hosted at
a contractor's office or at a apprenticeship program or a
joint facility, and the program will give the students a
number of experiences throughout a week or two, depending on
how it's set up, you know, learning some basic safety,
learning how to use some basic hand tools, you know,
finishing a project or two, maybe making a neat toolbox
(15:51):
or a Christmas tree or something interesting out of sheet metal,
so that you get an idea of you know, what
is it like to be in the construct industry and
work in a shop, and you could have a like
a virtual welding experience or really kind of anything that
we can think of.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Okay, that sounds amazing. Let me ask you this. I
know again, many many years ago, growing up, blue collar
jobs were kind of known. If you're going to get
started and you're the new guy, you're kind of gonna
get picked on, You're gonna get harassed. They're gonna, you know,
tell you to go get the blinker fluid when you're
work at a shop, you know, working on cars, stuff
(16:28):
like that. Is that still the case?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
You know?
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Unfortunately?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I think there are elements of that in every industry
and the new guy always gets picked on.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Smack and Smart together have a.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Program called Bee for All, which is about culture on
your job sites. And you know, our desire is to
make sure that all of our job sites and all
of our apprenticeship programs are welcoming and open to all,
and there really is no place for that kind of harassment.
I mean, I grew up with roofers. They were great people.
They were also pretty mean. If you showed a little
(17:02):
bit of weakness, you were going to get picked on, right,
it didn't matter what it was. Kind of exactly what
you described. I think constructor the construction industry has lost
too many people because of that, and we're taking strong
steps to make sure we don't need moore.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Okay, awesome. So if a young person is listening and
they're like, yeah, I like the idea of building something,
then how do you recommend they narrowed down what their
actual interest is, Because, like you said, it takes a
whole orchestra to build a house. There's a lot of
different trades involved in that. How do you figure out,
as a young person which one is your interest.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
There's a couple of different ways to do that. If
you're fortunate enough to live in a community that has
a strong local construction association that does a construction career day,
try to get into a program like that, because those
will try to give you exposure to all the different trades.
You can also take some time to visit your local
building trade unions and talk to the people who work
(17:57):
there and maybe tour their apprenticeship program. They're happy to
share the great things that they do in terms of
how they treat how they teach people different trades. If
you happen to know a local contractor, or if your
parents are and have some friends in that space, go
talk to that individual, see if you can chattel them
for a day, and maybe to our job site to
(18:19):
try to get a little bit of exposure about things
that happen.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Okay, and if you're an adult and you're thinking about
changing careers, is is it ever too late to get
into the construction fields.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
It's certainly not too late. I mean, at some point
as you get older, it probably is too late. But
you know, if you've started a career and you've decided
that isn't right for you, then absolutely you can explore
a career in the building trades and your experience and know,
their career might be very relevant to the things you'll
be doing in the trades. So if you think about
the construction industry, you know, we're often focus on just
(18:57):
the jobs in the field, the laborers and brickies and
HVAC folks and electricians and whatnot.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
That work there.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
We also have the full scope of other jobs, whether
that's project managers, estimators, accountants, HR people, administrative assistants. You know,
these are companies like any other. So there's a wide
array of opportunities. And you know, one of our pinch
points today is that office support staff. We're really we've
done a great job of growing our field workforce, which
still needs work, but we also have to grow the
(19:25):
office support so we can keep doing more jobs.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Oh that's interesting. I didn't know that. Okay, that's good
to know. Let's shift gears and talk about what is
the Careers in Trades Week.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
So Careers in Trades Week was a program that you know,
we started with a few of our partners to take
some time to do things exactly like this.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
I don't think we have.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Talked about the construction industry enough, and we haven't talked
about the great opportunities the whole concept of you know,
learning and earning at the same time are things we
have to create more awareness of, and a career and
trades week, you know, kind of focuses our attention on
talking about the industry and talking about the great opportunities
that we have.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Okay, I love that. And is that partially because again
mainly in our generation, there was like this stigma almost
against blue collar jobs. Is that part of what this
is about or is this literally just more for recruitment.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
It's both. You're correct. In our generation, Oh my god,
you've got a blue collar job. That's bad.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I think that's ridiculous because you're never going to outsource
your plumber.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
You're never going to outsource the people.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Doing the jobs that you know that build houses and
build apartment buildings and build you know, giant commercial structures.
You know, those jobs are here to stay. They're changing,
they're technologically interesting, they're challenging, and they pay really, really well.
They're better than a lot of the white collar jobs.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I mean, yeah, you
might be able to be indoors, but in my experience
with that, there's a thing called office winter, and you
freeze your butt off in the summertime.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
As someone who's probably responsible for office winter, I love
that cold. But I completely understand where you're coming from,
and you know it is you know, if you're doing
a career in the trades, you know one of the
things you do have to think about is it's hot
in the summer, it's cold in the winter. You're going
to be exposed to elements. And if you're not mentally
prepared for that or don't like that, it's not the
career for you.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
It's not a barrier. It's just something you have to
be prepared for.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Right, That's what I was about to say. I mean,
it may be a shock at first, but isn't that
something you can kind of work your way into.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, you can absolutely work your way into that. And
you know it's warm out, you get used to it,
and contractors are really good at managing heat and managing
heat expectations.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Similarly with cold, same thing.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
There are certain jobs you can't do when it's freezing
out and snowing, and there are the jobs you can
do and those might be more indoors. So that's something
that you know if you're in an apprenticeship program. I
don't think we explicitly teach that, but you're gonna learn
it because you're gonna watch what everybody else is.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Doing, right for sure? And I know I'm pretty sure
I know the answer to this, but I'm gonna ask
it anyway. Have we also seen an increase in what
people like to call diversity in the construction industry, meaning
not just different you know, races, but also genders and
things of that nature.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Very much.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
So it's certainly a growing trend that you'll see generational
shifts and who's in an industry. If you look at
the history of the construction industry and the history of
billion trade unions, you know, you can trace it, you know,
from Germans to Irish to Italians and now you see
a lot more Hispanics and African Americans, right, So those
changes happen over time. My view of the industry as
(22:50):
it's open to everyone and we need everyone to fill
all these jobs.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yeah, definitely, very much. I agree. When talking about gen
Z again, do you well, let me ask you this,
do you have any children.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
I actually have triplets that are sophomores in college. So wow,
like you, I'm kind of in that realm of you know,
watching all these things happen, and we certainly explored construction
careers when they were younger.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Their pasts were different than that those paths.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Okay, so you knew where my questions were going.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, so I have one in music school. I've got
you know, one who's you know, doing English and is
fluent in languages, and another who's you know, very much
a nerd like me who likes government and economics, so
very different disciplines. But you know, they're on their own
past and they really seem to like them.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yeah, and like you said, some of those things, maybe
not all, but some of those things, if they wanted to,
they could come back and use in the construction industry
in some form.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Right absolutely. I mean, my bachelor's degree is in political
science and psychology. I have a master's degree in applied
politics or political management, and an MBA. I still worked
in the construction industry. I ran a you know, ran
a family construction business, and I have been representing contractors
for twenty five years. So the degrees are things that
(24:12):
you learn, you become an expert down or you learn
certain topics that help you in your career.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
They don't define your career.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Right, I agree with that. So your organization also is
involved in the legislative things that affect your industry, correct,
very much, so, yes, Okay, So is there anything going
on right now in the legislature, in Congress or anything
like that that we need to be aware of.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
You know, at a ten thousand foot level, the construction
industry has a very bright outlook from an employment perspective.
There are lots of large projects on the horizon. There
are lots of demands for college and university struction, hospital construction.
You know, the sort of breadth of the industry is good.
(25:05):
That demand can change, and those demand functions can change
if the country has a recession or has some sort
of you know, negative economic period. Obviously, the extent to
which tariffs trigger a recession that could impact the construction industry.
Maybe tariffs increased trade over time too. We'll have to
wait and see how that plays out.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Okay, are there any other things that would affect anything
to do with construction that we you know, you might
want public support for that we can maybe get behind you.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
And I think the UH, I think one of the
most important things is, you know, for the future of
the economy and for the construction industry is solving the
nation's power problem. You know, we happen to be in
northern Virginia, which is where Smack is located, where I
live now, and there's a moratorium on, you know, building
new data centers because there's no power to hook them
(25:56):
up to for the next five or seven years. Right,
we have to figure out a way to build either
small nuclear plants or natural gas plants in an efficient
manner so we can keep the economy growing. So, I
think from a public support perspective, I'm really interested in
the long term game, and that long term game is
making sure that we have great sources of clean power
(26:18):
that are available twenty four to seven. Renewables are fine,
and they certainly have a place in the industry, but
we need that steady state power to keep economic growth
going and to reshore manufacturing.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah, I definitely agree with that, And I wanted to
ask you in regards to that. Have you heard of
the hydrogen power sources, fuel cells, and things of that nature.
They're really big right now.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
They're very big. They're very interesting.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
I don't know a lot about them, but I'm sure
they're going to be part of the solution.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yeah. I think so too. I can't remember which country
it is, but one country has devoted to changing all
of their power grid over to hydrogen, you know, through
the next how many ever tens of year. But yeah,
I'm anxious to see how that plays out and anxious
to see if that, you know, translates into even tools,
because right now I think the options are gas power
(27:11):
or electric right.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Pretty much?
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yeah, you're seeing you know that your your big tool manufacturers,
Milwaukee Tool, du Walt, Cobalt, they all have, you know,
fantastic you know, battery operated options, which are really the
electric tools. Some of them obviously plug in, but most
contractors are going to use battery tools if they're an option,
because they're a lot more portable. The extent to which
(27:35):
that technology grows and changes and becomes more efficient is
really good for us.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Yeah, and as far as the way things are done,
are there any technological advances being made that we should
know about a construction?
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Is really cool right now, And particularly if you're a
technology nerd, you know the number of drones and imaging
devices and things that we're using on up sites now
to solve problems is very very interesting. How we use
software to coordinate work both in the production shop and
(28:10):
in the field is an ever changing environment that's getting
stronger and stronger. You know, construction. People think of construction,
they think of, you know, a bunch of laborers, you know,
standing around with a shovel and a bunch of hammers,
right and doing manual work. That certainly is part of construction.
But there's also all of this technology that we're using.
And you might be looking at the plans for the
(28:32):
building on your iPad and then you know, telling a
robot to go move that piece of machinery or equipment,
you know, from spot A to spot B on that iPad.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
So there's a whole.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Bunch of changes that are happening, which if you join
the industry today, you're kind of get you kind of
get to be on the front.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Lines of that.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Sounds amazing. We're coming up to the end of our time.
But I want to ask you this question. I'm just curious.
You're the expert. Is there anything else that the audience
needs to know before we say goodbye? I just didn't
know to ask you about.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I think that the biggest thing that I want to
leave people with is that you know, you need to
find the career that is right for you. That career
could be in the construction industry, That could career could
be after college and whatever thing it is. But I
encourage parents and students and young people and people who
finish college to have an open mind and to look
around at the options that are available to them, and
(29:24):
you know, make good decisions about what.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
You want to do.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
I love it. Thank you so much for your time
today and sharing your expertise. I really do appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Thank you for having me, Rebecca. I very much enjoyed
the conversation.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I hope you've enjoyed today's show. Thanks for tuning into
the show on your favorite local radio station. You can
now listen to this show or past shows through the
iheartapp or on iHeart dot com. Just search for Virginia
Focus under podcasts. I'm Rebecca Hughes with the Virginia News Network,
and I'll be here next week on Virginia Focus.
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