Pictured above: TDIndustries team with Texas Workforce Commissioner of Labor Julian Alvarez III (wearing hard hat) at their TDIndustries Registered Apprenticeship Kickoff Celebration.

At TDIndustries, they believe that with such a big gap in the skilled trades, they'd be crazy not to continuously fill their pipelines with talent. They focus on replenishing their talent pipeline with the energy of the youth and empowering more women to fulfill vacant positions in skilled trades. Diana Hoang, Recruiting Manager at TDIndustries explains:

“We interact with the educational community in a number of ways, such as attending career fairs, presenting at schools, and bringing students to tour our job sites.

There is a ton of skilled individuals who are retiring from the industry, and there are few new tradesmen and women to fill their spots. The perception of construction is mis-represented and we, as employers, need to change the perception to continue to generate more interest.

It is also important to engage not only students, but also the parents, instructors, and counselors who influence the students day in and day out.”

Event though they are in the early stages of their educational community engagement program at the Austin office, the leadership at TDIndustries is already seeing benefits through their partnerships with Skillpoint Alliance and Austin Community College.

“Students come with the hunger for knowledge and to get hands-on experience, and by providing them the opportunity to take what they learned and put it into action, they get to grow their skills while we get to add another skilled trade individual to the industry.

It is a win-win.”

Diana also shares that:

“An important piece of the puzzle when it comes to recruiting trades is recruiting WOMEN to join the construction industry! Women make up 51% of the population, yet only a minimal portion of them consider construction as a career. We are missing out on 51% of talent by not strategically targeting women, so we are going to change that!”