When contractors talk certification, they’re often referring to apprenticeship, craft training and safety qualifications for field workers. But at a time when the industry is eager to fill jobs and skills gaps across the board, from the office to the field, some firms are getting creative to help all types of construction employees reach the next level of leadership.

Associated Builders and Contractors’ Wisconsin Chapter is already ahead of the game. Through its award-winning Construction U certificate programs, the chapter provides practical, management-level education for local employees who learn how to better plan, organize, communicate and monitor their daily activities, while leveraging both the hard and soft skills necessary to overcome obstacles with increased confidence.

Reprinted courtesy of Lauren Pinch, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved.

Amazon.com Inc. has shown a boundless desire to put its Alexa smart-home devices in every nook and cranny of people’s houses. Just last week, it announced a raft of new gadgets, including a microwave and clock.

Now it’s making its first bet on a homebuilder.

The Seattle-based Internet giant is investing in a $6.7 million fundraising round for Plant Prefab, a California company that manufactures modules that can be assembled quickly into a home at a job site. The wager is being made through the Alexa Fund, a pool of capital Amazon created in 2015 to back startups working on new uses for voice technology.

The North Carolina Home Builders Association's three-day conference has just gotten under way, but as Hurricane Florence bears down, some of the 2,000 attendees are leaving early to prepare for the worst.

A vision of the future with smart, efficient, utopian, technology-empowered “smart cities” has gleamed on the horizon for years. The concept offers vague promises that all of a city’s infrastructure and operations will be connecting, communicating and automatically adjusting facilities and services to deliver ever higher levels of satisfaction and efficiency.

U.S. new-home construction rose less than forecast in July amid a rebound in groundbreaking for single- and multi-family houses, indicating the industry was trying to regain its footing at the start of the second half.

Key Takeaways
A strong labor market, lower taxes and improved finances are providing support to demand for housing, which indicates that homebuilding will keep expanding, albeit at a slower pace.

The largest public-private partnership investment in a national park is delivering a new experience for visitors to the landmark Gateway Arch in St. Louis, which was designed by the late-architect Eero Saarinen. The 10-year path to the opening this month was full of hurdles, including floods. And the project’s 46,000-sq-ft underground visitor center expansion needed to be built without shutting down the arch, which gets nearly 3 million visitors each year.

The Real Deal reported that Century Homebuilders received a “$20 million loan to build four single-family home communities in western Miami-Dade County” from Miami-based FirstBank of Florida. The 92-home construction project includes a 59 single-family home community in West Kendall, two smaller communities in Westchester, and 18 homes near Tamiami. The developer’s president and founder, Sergio Pino, stated that he is focused on purchasing land in Western Miami-Dade County.

National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Eye on Housing reported that builder confidence in the newly-built single-family homes market “remained unchanged at a solid 68 reading in July on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).” Builders remain optimistic regarding the housing market, due to continued solid demand for single-family homes.

The National Association of Home Builders’ Eye on Housing reported, in the first quarter of 2018, single-family home permits increased 8.4% over the April 2017 levels. In the year between April 2017 and April 2018, over 30 states featured single-family permit growth, with Colorado recording the highest rate of growth (34.2%). Texas and Florida led the U.S. in number of permits issued, while the lowest came from District of Columbia. According to Eye on Housing, the nationwide increase in permits “ is largely due to the aggregate increase in single-family permits across the Western states. Out of the 13 which are classified as Western states, nine states recorded single-family permit growth exceeding the national average.”

The Northwest building market remains strong, say industry leaders, as construction employment in Oregon, Alaska and Washington continues to grow, according to the Associated General Contractors.

Construction leaders across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas are optimistic about regional construction activity moving into the second half of 2018.