Members of Local 5 attended the International Training Institute’s SWIFT foreperson training in Greensboro, North Carolina, helping jobsite leaders develop their professional skills and further their careers.
This type of class is especially important right now, with signatory contractors reporting a need for leadership to help take on new work and grow the unionized sheet metal industry. The North Carolina course consisted of 10 individuals with varying degrees of leadership experience. Over four days, participants covered a variety of topics, including but not limited to: cost control, scheduling, people skills, communication skills, collaboration, document management, contract awareness and organizational skills.
“Overall, the class was very well received by the participants,” said ITI’s Adam Smith.
The ITI’s foreperson training curriculum was revamped in 2020 by a task force of representatives from labor, management and training. Smith was one of the ITI staff members on the task force; having spent his career as a foreperson, general foreperson, superintendent and general superintendent at a large mechanical contractor, he had plenty of input on what he wished he had been taught ahead of time.
“One of the first lessons in the curriculum is about self-reflection and what it takes to be a foreperson. We felt this was important, because all too often, a contractor just picks someone based on their work output and hands them a set of prints. But is this person really cut out for it? Or do they really know what they are getting themselves into?” Smith explained. “As time has passed in the construction industry, the speed of information and project schedules has increased immensely, and throwing someone into the fire blind can certainly be a daunting endeavor. We wanted this training to help soften this shock to the system and provide our membership with a basic knowledge and skill set to at least have a heads up of what they are getting into and how to better prepare themselves.”
“This training can help equip current journeypersons and apprentices with the tools necessary to build these projects on time, safely and on budget,” he concluded. “For locals looking to put on their own foreperson training, their JATC already has access to the curriculum and resources we used to put on this SWIFT training, but if they would like to have ITI come in and assist, they can reach out to their ITI field representative to get the ball rolling.”