Last week The SACK Company sponsored the first annual ‘Students in Business’ in Dublin-Laurens County. Select students from the various programs spent the day visiting businesses related to their field of study. The structured program has a goal of giving the students insight into career paths available, skills and education needed, variety of jobs in various industries, and salary and market expectation.
The Dublin-Laurens County Chamber of Commerce, the local schools and local industry joined forces to develop this unique career training program for students in the Career, Technical, Agriculture Education program in the area high schools.
The students from three different local high schools met in the morning at Dublin High School. As the program sponsor, SACK had the opportunity to address the group as a whole on the importance of soft skills. Fred Hill, SACK HR Manager, stressed the importance of appearance, attitude, work ethic, timeliness and ability to work well with others with the students before they broke out into groups to go to their respective industries.
SACK then hosted 15 students back to the Dublin office where they were able to get an inside look into the evolving and abundant world of construction.
The SACK Dublin office is the industrial arm to the SACK operation. They manage all millwright and rigging projects, overhauls, machinery erection, equipment installations, conveying and piping systems. They also do plant shutdowns and plant relocations.
The students were surprised to hear that they could travel internationally while working for SACK. SACK has relocated plants from Japan, Canada, China, Germany and Mexico. Students also got to see the technology used in today’s construction such as Building Information Modeling software, Computer-Aided Design software and automated welding machines.
SACK sponsored this program in efforts of building a sustainable workforce in the construction industry. According to the Association of General Contractors Georgia, 72 percent of construction firms are having difficulty filling hourly craft positions and 50 percent of these firms are having difficulty filling project management and supervision positions.
According to byf.org, over the next 3 years Georgia will need 13,102 electricians, 11,918 pipefitters, 4,015 plumbers, 2,881 HVAC mechanics, and 2,720 millwrights.
These numbers are staggering when considering the amount of construction being done is only going to increase next year. Dodge Data and & Analytics predicts that total construction will increase by 5 percent from 2016 to 2017, a 36.5 billion dollar increase.
SACK is a leader in the efforts of finding a solution to the construction industry workforce shortage and will continue to educate young people on the benefits the construction industry has to offer.
We’re committed to hiring, training, growing and retaining the finest workforce in the industry. Join our growing team today.
