The Construction Education Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt corporation, the Foundation originally started in business on July 1, 2008.

Fortunately, the foundation didn’t start from scratch since it assumed all of the training activities and personnel associated with training activities of the Associated General Contractors of Alaska. In addition to providing training for construction industry workers, the Foundation was created to handle the Alaska Construction Academies and establish a mechanism for receiving contributions and gifts from individuals and corporations to perpetuate the goals of the foundation.

Training

The Foundation attempts to provide relevant, timely classes on a variety of topics of interest to members of the construction industry. The courses normally range from four to sixteen hours and present material considered valuable to contractors. Skill upgrades for craft workers are not currently offered as it is believed that such classes are better suited to individual companies.

Alaska Construction Academies

The purpose of these Academies is to train interested individuals in construction careers to currently exist in a community. The value of the that private/public partnership is that employers work with educators to produce workers that are needed now.

Endowments

While few can argue about the benefits of training tomorrow’s workforce and providing lifelong training for those in the workforce, the question of how to pay for the programs must be addressed. Currently the State of Alaska through the Department of Labor and Workforce Development has taken the primary responsibility for providing the training necessary for entry level workers. Employers and individuals are normally responsible for the lifelong training and development of workforce.

But if the industry is to succeed it needs not only more workers, it also needs better workers. It needs to fund scholarships to attract students to the industry. It needs to find ways to support educators. It needs to find ways to support training institutions. And it needs to support a funding mechanism that oversees those activities.