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NARI supplies its chapters with the direction and in- struction essential for infiltrating local school districts and promoting the trades to youth. Between 20 and 25 percent of jobs in the U.S. call for a four-year college degree, while 60 percent necessitate a technical skill of some kind, says Dan Taddei, the director of education and certification for NARI. "at's really where we have to be. "We have to convince Mom and Dad that it's OK to pursue the trades as a vocation. ere are still areas where if the program doesn't link to college, [the schools] don't want to talk about it," says Taddei, who advocates assess- ing the skill sets of students to gain insight. "ey prohibit their counselors from talking to the students about any career path other than going to college." STAYING PROACTIVE Other industries have been suffering from a labor short- age, too, which means remodelers must compete with them as well as each other to attract new employees. Contractors who accept this challenge and increase their visibility in local markets through ingenuity and leader- ship should strengthen their workforce and ensure pros- perity for their companies—in addition to their people. "e remodelers have to be the voice to the schools, and they have to be available to the tech schools and to the high schools to form mentorships with the students as they go through their junior and senior year," Taddei says. "It's upon us as industry leaders and people who are in the business to not just sit around and whine and cry about the fact that we don't have anybody to work, but we need to get out there and get active," says Doug King, owner of Doug King Contracting in Tampa Bay, Florida. "You can issue all the programs [and] you can set up all the different guidelines, but if nobody's going to use them, they'll go away." | the pitfalls of channeling their children into an academic degree program at the expense of other viable options that could offer immediate employment and reduce the likelihood of shouldering tremendous student debt. "ey had students just coming out of a four-year de- gree program, and [the graduates] couldn't find a job anywhere—they were underemployed or living back at home," says Zach Fields, the director of school relations for the Construction Education Foundation of Georgia, a nonprofit organization that affords construction training and placement services to people within the state. Fields has noticed a growing number of school systems in Georgia willing to put more resources into technical programs because of the career possibilities for young people. Students who work in construction apprentice- ships outside of the typical curriculum become automatic recruiters of their peers, which often serves as a bigger in- fluence on kids than parents impressing their own views. e Construction Education Foundation of Georgia has expanded its services to middle schools and will soon initiate an elementary school program to help extend the pipeline for skilled labor sources amid the rising deficien- cy of workers. "It all has to be grassroots," says Fields, a former teacher. "In public education, you have to break the status quo and establish a new precedent." KO H L E R H A S manufacturing plants across the country, but the company headquarters resides in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, between Milwaukee and Green Bay. The manufacturer established a STEM program and brings local stu- dents into its facilities twice a year to expose them to the career opportunities at Kohler, such as being an engineer, electrician or working on the shop floor. "We start very young—like in eighth grade—because one of the things that we find is that kids don't really know what their options are," says Elisabeth Sutton, a marketing director at Kohler. "They tour the facilities, talk to people and get real hands-on experience for the day, so that they can start to consider it and figure out if this might be a career path they would be interested in." The manufacturer also partners with the Sheboygan Area School District, Lakeshore Technical College and other local manufacturing companies to help graduate high school students with a higher level of technical skill and ability through an initiative called Red Raider Manufacturing, which aims to decrease the costs of training entry-level workers for employers in the area. "If we can build loyalty and get people interested early on, we can draw from our own backyard as opposed to having to go out and recruit," Sutton says. "You have to expose people early on—especially parents—to the fact that college isn't for everyone, and there are viable, livable wages being made in careers outside of just going the college track," says Sutton, who also mentors students in the community. "Because by the time they're a sophomore or a junior in high school, they're starting to think about what they want to do." Getting Ahead of the Shortage The remodelers have to be the voice to the schools, and they have to be available to the tech schools and to the high schools to form mentorships with the students. Dan Taddei, NARI SPECIAL REPORT: Labor Shortage 46 January 2017 QR QualifiedRemodeler.com