ABC’s Trimmer Foundation Awards Scholarships to Merit Shop Construction Students

WASHINGTON, D.C. – September 28, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) announced the first 10 winners of the Build Your Future Scholarship through ABC’s Trimmer Construction Education Foundation (TCEF). The scholarships are awarded to the top 10 students attending an NCCER-accredited program or a state/federally approved apprenticeship program in a merit-shop training facility. The scholarships are funded through a pledge of $100,000 from Build Your Future over the next five years.

“ABC is thrilled to honor the hard work, dedication and natural ability of each of these men and women and to be able to support them in advancing their careers in the construction industry,” said 2015 ABC National Chair Pamela Volm, president of Annapolis Contracting, Inc., Annapolis, Md. “The construction industry continues to offer tremendous career opportunities for Americans, as it has for generations, and we could not be more excited for the bright futures each of these scholarship recipients is building. Our industry faces a well-documented shortage of skilled workers and ABC, along with NCCER and our other training partners, is committed to developing current and future generations of skilled craftsmen and women.”

“The Build Your Future Scholarship recipients represent the best and brightest the merit shop construction industry has to offer,” said TCEF Chairman Mike Uremovich. “The construction industry is limited only by the shortage of qualified workers and the Trimmer Construction Education Foundation is proud to play a major role in ensuring that current and future generations of skilled craftsmen and women have the training they need to lead our industry.”

“Helping young people seek rewarding construction careers is critical to our industry’s future, and we are honored to provide this scholarship to support their development,” said Don Whyte, president of NCCER. “The hard work and determination exemplified by this year’s award recipients is encouraging for the future of our workforce. We wish them success as they continue their training and look forward to seeing them make a difference in our industry.”

Over the next several years the need for skilled construction workers is projected to grow by twice the rate for all industries according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). BLS projects that growth in the industry, combined with an aging workforce, will result in a shortage of 1.6 million skilled workers by 2022. ABC is committed to helping fill this shortage and ABC contractor members annually invest $1.1 billion to train approximately 476,000 construction industry professionals.

The TCEF is a non-profit, charitable organization that funds efforts to train and retain the construction industry workforce. The foundation provides direct support to training initiatives, programs and training facilities that promote careers within the construction industry through grants. In addition, the foundation supports the future leaders of our industry by providing scholarships to aspiring craft professionals and ABC Student Chapter members.

The 2015 winners and training facilities are:

Dylan Bruening
ABC Ohio Valley Chapter
Fabian Cervantes
ABC Northern California Chapter
Joseph Evangelista
ABC Illinois Chapter
Tyrone Gillispie
ABC West Tennessee Chapter
Mark Jaramillo
CLTCC Rod Brady
Joyce McDermott
ABC Ohio Valley Chapter
LaRenquet Monger
ABC West Tennessee Chapter
Hunter Tunmire
Northwest College of Construction
Yahara Vazquez
Northwest College of Construction
Mike Weltzin
ABC Northern California Chapter

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) is a national construction industry trade association representing nearly 21,000 chapter members. Founded on the merit shop philosophy, ABC and its 70 chapters help members develop people, win work and deliver that work safely, ethically, profitably and for the betterment of the communities in which ABC and its members work. Visit us at www.abc.org.

The Trimmer Construction Education Foundation’s mission is to fund, based on merit, proposed methods which have the highest impact to attracting, training and retaining the construction industry workforce. For more information, please visit www.trimmerfoundation.org/

NCCER is a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) education foundation created by the construction industry to develop standardized curriculum with portable credentials and to help address the skilled construction workforce shortage. NCCER is recognized by the industry as the training, assessment, certification and career development standard for the construction and maintenance craft professional. For more information, visit www.nccer.org or contact NCCER customer service at 888.622.3720.

Build Your Future (BYF) is NCCER’s national image enhancement and recruitment initiative for the construction industry. Its mission is to recruit the next generation of craft professionals by making career and technical education a priority in secondary schools, shifting negative public perception about careers in the construction industry and providing a path from ambition, to training, to job placement as a craft professional. BYF provides a number of resources to assist industry, education and military organizations in achieving these goals. For more information, visit www.byf.org.

Contact: Jeff Leieritz (202) 905-2104