Home Builder Academy featured by Builder Magazine
Photo by Jeff Nelson
Students learn the details of constructing a home from instructors at the Colorado Home Building Academy.
Five years ago, Jennifer Johnson, founder and CEO of the Construction Trade School in Dallas, started to talk to home building and remodeling organizations about a looming labor shortage in the residential construction trades. She called it a crisis, but industry leaders were focused elsewhere. Their No. 1 priority at the time was recovering from the recession, and many felt labor was a subcontractor problem, not theirs.
“It’s kind of like those shows you watch where there’s a tidal wave, and the scientists know it’s coming, and nobody gets a boat ready,” Johnson says.
As the impending shortage began to affect builders’ bottom lines, however, more and more took notice. Over the past few years in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, the lack of qualified labor has increased housing prices, delayed building times, and created uncertainty for builders and manufacturers.
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