Foreword -- Special Edition of Building Success in the Trades

https://www.amazon.com/Greater-Michigan-Construction-Academy-Building/dp/1072319543/ref

One of the biggest challenges in skilled trades is being able to find the right people with the right competencies and attitudes to fill vacant jobs.  Not just vacant jobs but well-paying jobs.  It seems senseless to continue revisiting the past instead focusing on the future, which is much more valuable, and that’s where this book is immeasurable.  What Bill & and Georgian Lussier did in this book was just that; getting back to basics. 

We have to re-tell the story of what a skilled trades job is like in this new economy with newer technologies and how the skill sets our young people possess complement those jobs.  Most of our young people today have outdated ideas of what a skilled trades job is really like. A lot of that we, as adults, need to take responsibility for as well.  Our marketing and our narratives need to change, and this book does that.  We call an apprenticeship program at The Greater Michigan Construction Academy “The Other 4-year Degree” which is the typical duration for most of the trades. 

Simply exposing young people to the reality of what a modern skilled trades job looks like in the commercial landscape is part of the solution.  This book is most effective for kids, counselors and parents in particular before they get to high school and are more set in what kind of career path they start to pursue.  People are aging out of the workforce across the economy and part of the problem lies in society not being the best in helping young people choose what career to pursue.  When we expose young people that train at The Greater Michigan Construction Academy you see them light up and they get excited about the possibilities.  This book helps to propel that excitement!

Jimmy E. Greene

CEO, Greater Michigan Construction Academy