Faced with a worker shortage, a construction company in Pearland developed its own academy

PEARLAND, Texas (KTRK) -- If you've wanted to work in construction, there's a new academy offering ways to break in.

When it comes to finding new electricians or boilermakers, there's an academy taking a different approach. It looks like a technical school, but it's not.

It's an academy built and developed by a construction company to solve a growing problem.

"It's extremely difficult to find people that want to break into this industry, actually," Burns and McDonnell craft workforce development director Chad Whetro explained.

Burns & McDonnell opened the 14,000 square foot academy this year at its Pearland location. Instead of hiring workers with experience or education, they're providing it to them.

The academy is in Pearland, but they can take the classroom across the region and country with this mobile unit.

"If we can't find the workers, we can't build, and we can't grow," Whetro said. "We continue to grow up. We continue to grow out. We need people that can do pipefitting. That can do electrical work, carpentry work. Those are the things that we need."

It's not just this business looking for workers. Associated Builders and Contractors data shows the industry needs to find about 450,000 new workers this year to meet demand.

A couple of hundred have come through this academy so far this year, with the goal of attracting even more to help Houston continue to build.

"Our goal is to exponentially grow that over the course of each year," Whetro explained. "There are over 500,000 opportunities out there as far as the craft labor shortage and we plan on filling a good portion of those."

If you want to break into the construction industry, Eyewitness News will have experts join us during ABC13's Who's Hiring job fair on Wednesday at 10 a.m. on our 24/7 stream. There will also be a chance for you to get a job in-person.

Our job fair event takes place on Wednesday from ten until two at the Pearland Recreation Center.

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