With “go to college and get a degree” increasingly the mantra of educators, there has emerged a severe shortage of trained construction professionals to help build this nation’s infrastructure. Sadly absent from career conversations is the high level of training and proficiency required to operate multimillion-dollar construction cranes, and the great potential for job satisfaction and income growth that can be achieved by those who follow this career path.

NCCCO is addressing this skills gap, which has been widened by an aging workforce, through participation in multiple initiatives including:

Lift & Move USA a careers initiative held in cooperation with Skills USA, that invites high school and college students – as well as serving military personnel and veterans seeking a new career direction – to explore the crane, rigging, and specialized transport industries through regularly scheduled “open houses” sponsored by firms at their facilities around the country.

ACE Mentor Program of America (ACE) which helps mentor high school students and inspires them to pursue careers in design and construction.   As the nation’s fastest growing high school mentoring program, reaching over 8,000 students annually, ACE not only engages sponsors and volunteer mentors to expose students to real world opportunities, but financially supports each student’s continued success through scholarship and grants. Since inception, ACE has awarded over $14 million in scholarships to promising participants.

YouthBuild which provides unemployed young people who left high school without a diploma an opportunity to reclaim their educations, gain the skills they need for employment, and become leaders in their communities. Partnerships established with local unions of the Operating Engineers and the Carpenters, for example, provides a pathway for newly-graduated high schoolers to lucrative and responsible careers in the skilled trades.

NCCCO has a long history of assisting active military personnel in their certification efforts, as well as veterans transitioning back to civilian life. As a founding member of the Coalition for Professional Certification (CPC), NCCCO successfully lobbied Congress in 1999 to expand the Montgomery G.I. Bill for the first time to cover the costs of certification fees for retiring members of the armed forces.

Since then, NCCCO has participated in Veterans Transition Conferences held in Washington, DC as well as credentialing summits organized by the American Legion to draw attention to veterans’ transition and the credentialing pathways that might expedite it.

NCCCO personnel served on the inaugural Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Professional Certification Advisory Board (PCAB).

NCCCO certification has received continuous approval since 2000 from the VA for providing certified Crane operator examinations to military retirees as specified under Section 122 of the Veterans Benefits and Health Care Improvement Act of2000 (Public Law 106-419). This law provides for reimbursement of fees for licensing or certification tests, the successful completion of which demonstrates an individual’s possession of the knowledge or skill required to enter into, maintain, or advance in employment in a predetermined and identified vocation or profession.

The NCCCO Foundation is an enthusiastic believer in the value of grants and scholarships to assist those who might otherwise lack the resources to gain access to knowledge about careers in the construction, telecommunications and other industries. 

The NCCCO Foundation is committed to developing a philanthropic system that will not only provide information about career opportunities to youth and other underserved communities, but will establish a solid platform of education about safety that will contribute in a meaningful way not only to the individuals benefiting from the grants and scholarships but also, by extension, to the industry they work in.

NCCCO has committed $10,000 over three years in certification scholarships offered through the SC&R Foundation.