Career Development: Mentor and Train Construction Executives
The key to any successful construction worker is good training. Throughout a worker’s construction or trades career it’s important to find mentorships along the way to ensure that they are always learning new skills and improving their craft making their team stronger. Mentors share advice and experience that prepare mentees for their future career.
Shared Skills
Implementing a mentorship program into a team creates a strong relationship between mentors and mentees. In many ways mentors and mentees help each other. When mentors share their skills and expertise on a jobsite, they help elevate the skills of their mentees but also strengthen their own knowledge on different topics. Both parties benefit each other and help one another grow in their career.
Building small businesses
In a research article by Construction Executive, they discussed the importance and benefits that MBE’s receive from partnering with mentorship programs like The Beck School of Construction. “This type of collaboration is urgent and necessary to ensure that small W/MBE firms receive the training, experience, and resources to collaborate with larger firms. This approach helps mitigate the risk and remove the barriers that have historically blocked these W/MBE firms from expanding their businesses.” The program helped many MBEs in the Fort Worth area with training courses in trades, construction, and business management. They have seen a steady increase in the number of MBE’s enrolling in the program each year because of the greater awareness of the program and the alumni spreading the word to younger students.
Future Success
Promoting mentors on jobsites creates a strong team of workers. The skills and knowledge that are shared between mentor and mentee are things that will be passed on to future workers. As experienced workers retire, mentorship programs provide skills and training to new workers, creating a strong and stable workforce for every role in the company.
Leadership Training
As important as it is to provide mentors and training to new workers, it is also crucial to provide training for construction executives and people in leadership positions. Companies who equip their leaders with the proper training not only benefit the people in those positions but also everyone in the company by building a strong team that can inspire and motivate their peers to maintain effective results on the job.
Mentor Search
One of the main barriers for people finding mentors is not knowing how to get a mentor, who to choose, and where to find one. The Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) offers a mentor program. Through the program people can volunteer as a mentor and mentees are able to apply and research who they think will be the best fit for them.
How NAWIC can help
NAWIC’s Leadership Academy is another great resource for women in the construction industry to find mentors and training courses for leadership positions. The Leadership Academy offers curriculum that covers strategic leadership skills, networking and leveraging relationships, and mentorship and sponsorship education.
NAWIC has more than 5,500 members in 120 chapters across the US, and affiliates across the globe. Contact a chapter near you to learn more.
