The Building Talent Foundation (BTF) entered partnerships with two California organizations: the North State Building Industry Foundation (NSBIF) and the California Homebuilding Foundation (CHF). Through its partnership with the NSBIF, BTF will work with the organization to promote careers in construction, connect job seekers with employers in the sector, and improve employee engagement. The BTF and CHF will collaborate on programs that expose young people to the home building industry, provide them with training and education, and connect job seekers with employers.
“NSBIF is a well-established, well-connected organization that has been serving Northern California for over 15 years, and our partnership with them will strengthen and enhance our local efforts to provide qualified trades workers to employer partners,” says BTF CEO Branka Minic. “Likewise, we will collaborate to augment and amplify their programs as we all work toward the common goal of a strong, sustainable home building workforce.”
One of the key components of the NSBIF and BTF’s partnership is a NSBIF-branded landing page on BTF’s JobsToBuild.com platform. The platform will allow NSBIF education and employer partners to connect with students and job seekers, facilitating placement in training programs and construction careers. BTF says the NSBIF has helped the organization participate in several career fairs and expos in California, building relationships with employers, education partners, job seekers, and students in the state. The organizations will also collaborate to promote NSBIF partners’ courses and BTF programs, help connect course graduates to employers, and work-based training opportunities, and provide support and training to NSBIF partners.
The BTF’s partnership with the CHF will center on supporting the state foundation’s Donald Chaiken Building Industry Technology Academy (BITA). BITA is offered in high schools throughout California, giving students opportunities to learn construction skills and gain hands-on experience to prepare them for careers in construction. To date, the program serves an average of 6,300 students annually from 50 California high schools.
“For more than 40 years, the Foundation has been working on getting young people excited and interested in home building careers,” Minic says. “We are proud to be partnering with them to help them continue this success, and we’re fortunate to have them in our corner as we bring our programs to California.”
Both the BTF and CHF will work together to promote careers in construction to high school students and job seekers and facilitate connections between job candidates and employers. The organizations will also work to improve employee engagement and retention for industry employers. The partnership, similarly to the NSBIF partnership, will include a branded landing page on the JobsToBuild.com platform. The BTF and CHF will also collaborate to promote students to BTF’s education and recruiting partners and provide career information to instructors and administrators involved in the BITA program.
BTF was established by 20 leading home building companies and is committed to building a sustainable residential construction workforce. The organization’s mission is to advance the education, training, and career progression of young people and people from underrepresented groups as skilled technical workers and business owners in residential construction.
BTF has recently entered partnerships with SkillPointe Foundation, the Southern Careers Institute in Texas, M.T. Copeland Technologies, the Painting Contractors Association, StrataTech Education Group, the Floor Covering Education Foundation, Friendly House, and NextWave Safety Solutions to provide career coaching and job placement services to students involved with each organization.
