Live from Buildertrend University: Iowa Skilled Trades
Brandon Patterson of Iowa Skilled Trades joins us on The Building Code live from Buildertrend University.
Some of our listeners might be wondering, what is Iowa Skilled Trades? Well, it’s a movement … a movement led by industry pros to bring initiatives, education and awareness to skilled trades in the state of Iowa. With the labor shortage the construction industry is facing, Iowa Skilled Trades has one goal in mind: to bring forth the next generation of tradesmen and tradeswomen. From advanced manufacturing and welding to heating and cooling unit assembly and construction, “trades” is a wide net of various positions, and all of them are extremely important.
With a campus in Des Moines called the Skilled Trades Academy, niche programs like marine biology, fashion, radio television, carpentry, welding and so much more are offered to help young men and women learn outside of their typical high school programs. The coolest part? This school was privately funded through industry partners (Kreg Tools, home builders associations, etc.) and has raised over 2 million dollars to make this possible for students in the area. Pretty sweet, right?
Iowa Skilled Trades has only been around for about two and a half years, and they’ve already made huge impacts … so, what does the future hold? Brandon says, “… the sky is the limit as far as I’m concerned.” With the average age of the construction workforce being around 59 years old at the moment, it’s easy to see why this organization is necessary. And it all begins with educating the public on what’s out there and how great a career in the trades can be for the future workforce.
Sound like something you want to get involved in? Donate to the organization here. Or if you’d like to follow their awesome work, be sure to follow Iowa Skilled Trades on Instagram.
Links and more
Iowa Skilled Trades
Buildertrend University: Why Attend
Iowa Skilled Trades on Instagram
Skilled Trades Academy
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Tom Houghton:
Youโre listening to โThe Building Code.โ Iโm Tom Houghton joined by my co-host, Paul Wurth, VP of sales.
Paul Wurth:
Hello. Thatโs me.
Tom Houghton:
Hey. Thatโs you, Paul.
Paul Wurth:
That was a new intro for us, but weโre working it out.
Tom Houghton:
Weโre working it out.
Paul Wurth:
Itโs good.
Tom Houghton:
Weโre workshopping it.
Paul Wurth:
Moving on to our guest.
Tom Houghton:
Moving on to our guest. Weโre joined today by Brandon Patterson from Iowa Skilled Trades. Brandon, howโs it going?
Brandon Patterson:
Good. Thanks for having me.
Paul Wurth:
Hello, Brandon. We are live from BTU.
Tom Houghton:
Yep.
Paul Wurth:
This is my personal favorite episodes, because thereโs a lot of energy, a lot of buzz.
Tom Houghton:
And you can hear it in the background.
Paul Wurth:
Right, which gives you anxiety, but donโt worry. Itโll be fine.
Tom Houghton:
Weโre going to make it.
Paul Wurth:
Tom, the sound engineer. But yeah, super happy to have you here, Brandon. What do you think of BTU so far?
Brandon Patterson:
This is amazing. You never know what to expect without putting faces to the name and everything else, but then to actually walk the campus and see everything that goes with it, itโs been really good.
Paul Wurth:
Yeah. A lot of people are like, โCanโt wait. Going to hop a plane to Omaha for a software conference. Sounds like a party.โ
Tom Houghton:
Sounds riveting.
Paul Wurth:
Yeah. I like that, though. Low expectations.
Tom Houghton:
Low expectations.
Paul Wurth:
Thatโs what I always want my life.
Tom Houghton:
Thatโs right.
Paul Wurth:
Especially with my wife, just keep it low, all right?
Tom Houghton:
Then we can just knock it out of the park.
Paul Wurth:
Iโll try my best.
Tom Houghton:
Thatโs good.
Paul Wurth:
Good.
Tom Houghton:
Brandon, letโs talk about your background. Give us a background on you, but also on Iowa Skilled Trades.
Brandon Patterson:
Sure. My background is, if weโre going to talk building industry, anyway, I grew up in the trades. My family has been in the plumbing business for over 40 years. My grandma, whoโs over 90, still shows up every day to the office and opens the doors. My parents were invested in that business for over 30 years. So just growing up in plumbing outside of school. Then I got hired by Ferguson International company, really. Worked in Vegas during the housing boom and Colorado and Omaha. And then back to Des Moines, actually, and then got into real estate for eight years, and then moved on to actually doing workforce development for this Iowa Skilled Trades thing, full-time, through the Home Builders Association of both Des Moines and Iowa.
Brandon Patterson:
That is an initiative, if thatโs what you call it, really a movement behind trying to bring careers to the trades and workforce development, but then, also, collaborating with people like Nick Schiffer with the Keep Craft Alives and the Fine Homebuildings and the builders on Instagram and just trying to spread it nationally as well. So weโre a young movement, if you want to say that. Weโre probably only two and a half years old, but weโve made a lot of big impact in our first couple years.
Paul Wurth:
Thatโs really cool. So, Des Moines, Iowaโs where youโre based, but youโre trying to spread the word nationally. And you do that through networking with other young construction professionals that get it.
Brandon Patterson:
Absolutely. Iโm the super weirdo that reaches out to people online, on Instagram mostly, but also through or Twitter or whatever. LinkedIn is one of my favorite places on the planet. And I always say that. And people are like, โLinkedIn?โ Iโm like, โYeah. Thereโs a lot going on there.โ
Paul Wurth:
That should be the new tagline. โLinkedIn: Thereโs a lot going on there.โ
Brandon Patterson:
โCheck us out.โ
Paul Wurth:
Should be ours. Itโs great.
Brandon Patterson:
I mean, people our age at least, the younger ones, and there are some that are even older than us, theyโre on there and theyโre engaging and they are trying to actively make that next generation of trades men and women. Like the Keep Craft Alive thing, where they want to bring a sense of pride back into it. So, thatโs who weโre reaching out to, try and create relationships and network with those guys.
Tom Houghton:
Thatโs awesome.
Paul Wurth:
Itโs super important. Weโve talked about it in a few episodes. There is a labor shortage, and you can slice that a million different ways of whyโs and what a labor shortage actually means, but the bottom line is, and we talked a little bit this off air, which is, I donโt think people think itโs cool to be blue collar, or a blue collar job or right out of high school. And I think it should be cool. Youโre going to make some money right away. Thatโs one of your angles as well, right?
Brandon Patterson:
Absolutely.
Paul Wurth:
Just like your speaking point.
Brandon Patterson:
Yeah. I donโt think that. Itโs funny to me growing up in it; I have a very different view of what blue collar is. And I donโt think blue collar is even a term that necessarily exists any more. Everythingโs changed quite a bit. My parents made great money when they were doing it, but even now you can make so much more money, because thereโs even less people doing it. It is truly a skilled niche area where โฆ
Brandon Patterson:
I always say, if you want it to be a handyman in that under $35,000 to $45,000 business, maybe, quick bathroom remodels, quick this and that, you can make a ton of money doing that, set your own prices because most remodelers wonโt take jobs that are under the $40,000 range, especially if theyโre established remodelers, I should say. Theyโre not going to take those jobs because their business is too big, too much overhead. They canโt afford to take a job that small. So somebody taking those jobs could really make a huge impact right away and probably franchise that business and put it all over the place.
Tom Houghton:
Yeah. I mean, plumbers, electricians โฆ I mean, weโre doing plumbing in our house and the rate that I was being charged, I was like, โThis is better than like what I think we pay our doctor.โ I mean, in terms of pay thereโs a lot of money on the table for these guys.
Paul Wurth:
Every Tom, Dick and Harry is going to college and becoming a BDR or a CPA or whatever. Not many people are doing actual skilled trades at age 18. By the time Joe College is back, done partying for four years, or in my case, six and a half โฆ
Tom Houghton:
A lot of people go to school for six and a half years. Theyโre doctors. Yeah. Derailed you on that one, sorry.
Paul Wurth:
That was wicked. That personโs four years ahead with experience, with making money, all that.
Brandon Patterson:
Yeah. Itโs really interesting. Thereโs such a huge gap out there between โฆ So when we were doing an event a few years ago, they were telling us that the youngest heavy equipment operator, I believe, was mid-20s. Then the next one was 10 years older, and then the next one after that mid 30 year old was in their fifties. And there was only one of the one in the twenties, and maybe a few in the thirties, and then everybody else was that much older. So you just had a huge gap there created. And those heavy equipment operators are making a ton of money, theyโre really actually in some areas doing an, I donโt know, autonomous vehicles in a way where if youโre sitting here, almost like they do drones, where youโre sitting at your house or in a little hut, and the CAT or the excavator or whatever could be 200 miles away.
Paul Wurth:
Wow. I didnโt know that.
Tom Houghton:
Yeah. Technology. Itโs changing the industry.
Brandon Patterson:
It is.
Paul Wurth:
Take it easy, Tech Tom.
Tom Houghton:
Tech Tom. I was going to jump all over that.
Paul Wurth:
I know you were.
Brandon Patterson:
We could go right into robots, but think about it. AI is going to take white collar jobs before it takes blue collar jobs if blue collar exists. Because there is no robot ready to go out and do plumbing yet, but there are things within even what Googleโs created, able to take statisticiansโ jobs, which are high paying jobs, I believe it was one of the highest paying jobs in 2018. Those jobs are going to go away, actually taken by real robots, paralegals, things like that, that can go in and just harvest information. Those jobs are going to go away before our jobs go away in the trades.
Paul Wurth:
So you got job security youโre pitching as well.
Brandon Patterson:
Yeah. Absolutely.
Paul Wurth:
Against technology. Absolutely. That makes sense.
Tom Houghton:
So, tell me a little bit more about the trades that weโre talking about here. Give us a rundown of the gamut that weโre talking about.
Brandon Patterson:
Iโm a little bit different because I open everything open to the trades. To me, even advanced manufacturing in a way is a trade. I worked at Lennox putting heaters and air condition units together. That to me is a trade. And itโs so much cleaner than what everybody makes out. There was LED lights and the floors were clean and everything else, but I would say mechanics, so your automotive.
Brandon Patterson:
Then you bring in your people like, obviously, your carpenters, your welders, things like that. But those jobs even go across multiple platforms, if thatโs what you want to say, or multiple industries. A welder could be anywhere in any industry, really. So, everything, I think, from commercial to residential construction, obviously those are the trades. Then you look at maybe your heavy industrial, some of that. And then also your transportation, I would include, thatโs a trade. I mean, those people out there working their hands, they know more to do with concrete than I could even figure out with clay. I mean, theyโve been doing it for years. So, that is definitely a trade to me too. So, Iโm a little bit more open and inclusive and what I would consider a trade.
Tom Houghton:
And the goal here is, again, to raise awareness about this program, but also to get young people interested in this and show them that there is good money to be made here.
Brandon Patterson:
Yeah, absolutely. And itโs not just even showing the kids. The biggest complaint that youโll hear from most of them is showing the parents.
Paul Wurth:
Right. Because the parents are driving them to whatever they want to be. โGo be a lawyer.โ Right? Whatever.
Tom Houghton:
I think itโs natural instinct for-
Paul Wurth:
I think I saw that in a movie somewhere. Or a doctor. Everyone wants their kids to be a doctor and lawyer, really?
Tom Houghton:
And apparently theyโre also all from the East Coast.
Paul Wurth:
Yeah, I donโt know why I went New York on that. Iโve got a lot.
Tom Houghton:
Youโve got a lot to offer.
Paul Wurth:
My parents never did that to me. They knew. They knew that I was barking up the wrong tree. There was no, like, โHey, Paul, letโs go to law school.โ Theyโre like, โHey, go any school.โ
Tom Houghton:
Yeah. โWeโll take anything.โ
Paul Wurth:
But then again, they were pushing me to school.
Brandon Patterson:
Right. I think itโs just natural for the parents to want something better for their kids. And I understand that; Iโm a parent too. I grew up differently, so I am not going to push my kids either way, but I know a lot of people do. They just want something better. Our job is to show them that this is something better. You can earn while you learn. The thing is that it is lifelong learning if you enter one of these trades.
Brandon Patterson:
And if you want to just keep leveling up and be better, you want to be the business owner. You could start from the bottom, be the business owner, I know that you guys are going to talk to Nick, but I mean, even his story, thereโs so many good stories where theyโre starting as a framer or deck builder or whatever, then they go to building their own business and then they have their own crew and everything else, and then branching out to remodeling and new homes. I mean, thereโs so many different levels to what we do.
Paul Wurth:
Yeah. Most of our guests on the podcast, we talk to them about, โHey, whatโs your story? Howโd you get into it?โ Many of them were, โHey, I was good at this, so I decided to start my own business.โ And itโs why our company takes upon ourselves to say, โHey, not only do we want to show you Buildertrend and how can you get better at project management communication, but we also want to layer in how you can get better at your business side of things, because youโre a trade, and youโre really good at doing that, but sometimes that doesnโt transition into being a good business owner.โ So, we like supporting them that way too.
Brandon Patterson:
Yeah. I know other people talk about is where you see some of the skilled labor gap or the whatever. Itโs actually more of a training gap in there, but if youโre empowering them and youโre building them to be better business owners or better employees or whatever, they might not even leave your company. They might stay with you forever because of loyalty, because youโre empowering them with this knowledge and going out and learning these things that theyโll stick around, and thatโs on us too, to provide that.
Paul Wurth:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Absolutely. Thatโs cool.
Tom Houghton:
Tell us more about Iowa Skilled Trade. You guys have a campus in Des Moines, is that right?
Brandon Patterson:
Correct. Itโs actually called the Skilled Trades Academy at Central Campus.
Tom Houghton:
Thatโs a sweet name. I feel like โThe Avengersโ music should be playing in the background.
Paul Wurth:
Speaking about names, you said something earlier, earn while you learn, that should be your logo.
Brandon Patterson:
Earn while you learn, itโs definitely an apprenticeship motto that they use, whether itโs union or non-union, but it is a motto that a lot of people use. And right now in Iowa, theyโre definitely pushing hard on apprenticeships, and weโre trying to help create those apprenticeships too, not as easy as it sounds, work in progress, but we are working to try and do that.
Brandon Patterson:
So, the Skilled Trades Academy is at our Central Campus, itโs downtown Des Moines. The schoolโs been there for a very long time, used to be a Model T factory, which just fits perfectly for the Skilled Trades Academy. Offer a lot of different niche programs like marine biology, fashion, radio, television, just really cool stuff where you can go in and learn outside of your normal high school programs. Welding existed there, and carpentry existed there off and on forever. Weldingโs been the staple, but we wanted to create a place in the Des Moines area where everybody could come and have these other schools from around the Metro, we call it the Golden Circle, come in, and if you live in Waukee or if you live in Johnston, technically you can go to there and you can learn the skilled trades.
Brandon Patterson:
So, basically we privately funded this school through industry partners, like your Craig Tools, and we had the Home Builders Association and we had some of our largest builders in the Metro Hubble Homes donate to build this. So weโve built over $2 million to be able to put this program on, and weโre helping create curriculum and helping do all these things. So we offer plumbing, heating, cooling, electric, dry wall, or finishing, all those. And of course the welding program is still there and awesome. And then the carpentry program has actually expanded from what it was to what it is now.
Paul Wurth:
And you were telling me earlier, a high school student in your area, he can go to your school and get credits back to his high school.
Brandon Patterson:
Correct. So in the way that weโre trying to build it, too, is right now, weโre working with NCCER, and then also a union, and then also trying to just figure out what works best, whether itโs a community college curriculum, whether itโs this NCCER curriculum, which is actually industry accepted through union and non-union, or is it this union piece or thatโs the piece thatโs accepted more for electric in carpentry? So weโll use this one for that or whatever. So thatโs a part that weโve continued to tweak, but yeah, using the NCCER, at least that way, theyโre getting their core and itโs accepted outside of once you graduate high school, union, non-union, accepted both ways. The kids can pick which path they want to go, but weโre giving them what they need to start, something like the OSHA training, things like that.
Paul Wurth:
What makes an apprenticeship, not just my first job out of college and I trained on the job, but what is officially an apprenticeship? What does that mean?
Brandon Patterson:
Technically, your first job out of college apprenticeship, but it has to be, I donโt know if licensed, but certified through US Department of Labor, will have apprenticeship programs, then your States have their apprenticeship programs. So right now thereโs a big push through Future Ready Iowa to build our workforce or skilled workers. Well, you have to have some of those apprenticeships in place to be able to do that. And theyโre not all for high school aged kids, obviously, theyโre for people of all ages, but it just allows businesses to get involved with this education process, if that makes sense to, like the HBA, where Iโm from, could technically have a apprenticeship, maybe even through one of our builders or through one of our remodelers or have one of our own, somebody could come up through that apprenticeship, possibly get credits going into union or whatever.
Paul Wurth:
What is the advantage for a business to have an apprenticeship program over just hiring kids and training them? Iโm trying understand that from a business point of view.
Brandon Patterson:
I would say some of the dollars for education that are available is part of that. Possibly you could get funding to be able to create those programs. So youโre creating the workforce, but part of that is theyโre maybe giving you some dollars to be able to create that curriculum or use that curriculum to, instead of doing one kid, maybe youโre doing 20, 30, 40, whatever. I would say thatโs probably part of the benefit of having the apprenticeship program.
Paul Wurth:
That makes sense. Cool. Bring apprenticeships back.
Tom Houghton:
Yeah. Yeah. Whatโs the ultimate goal? Where do you want to see this program go? Whatโs the future look like of it?
Brandon Patterson:
Oh, Iโve got all sorts of crazy goals. I probably canโt even say them all.
Paul Wurth:
Heโs a visionary.
Brandon Patterson:
Yeah.
Tom Houghton:
I like visionaries.
Brandon Patterson:
With Iowa Skilled Trades, we just keep doing what weโre doing. We are growing slowly. Weโve been around for two and a half years, but weโve made huge impacts in what weโve done, I want to keep being able to make those impacts, keep collaborating and teaming up with who weโre teaming up with, like our unions and our non-unions and just going across, not only those lines, but also state lines.
Brandon Patterson:
We were talking to Nick Schiffer and those guys with modern craftsman in Vegas when we all met up there for International Builders Show. We had a meetup with Builders on Instagram, Modern Craftsman, Tradesmen of the Instagram, doing events like that, so then weโre not just helping our cause, weโre helping the national cause at that point. We raised money for two different womenโs groups that day on separate coasts, so one on the New York side and then one on the Oregon side.
Brandon Patterson:
So it was awesome to be able to keep doing stuff like that. I mean, skyโs the limit as far as Iโm concerned. I do want to create more apprenticeships and have something like a template, because creating it is the hardest part. So if we can create a template, where then our people can go and just be like, โHey, I want to create an apprenticeship,โ we just give them a folder thatโs already created or an electronic document, and all they have to do is fill out there. We did all the work, itโs ready for you. We want to keep giving scholarships.
Brandon Patterson:
We want to keep building our program at Central Campus, but I would love to see satellites. There are other places that have done satellites, where you can get adult education, and maybe those kids in our rural areas can get to โฆ not everybody can come to Central Campus. We have all these old empty rural schools. Tear them down, or not tear them down, tear them down to the studs, remodel them, make them where you can do some niche learning for different programs, not just skilled trades, but have those out there. I think creating stuff like that would be amazing, and having those opportunities available. So, like I said, itโs just-
Paul Wurth:
A lot of plans.
Brandon Patterson:
Yeah. Yeah.
Paul Wurth:
Well, you told me a stat earlier. Whatโs the average age of a construction workforce right now?
Brandon Patterson:
Average age nationally, I believe, is 59.
Paul Wurth:
- So, you think we have an issue now. Wait five years when they all retire.
Brandon Patterson:
Thatโs the biggest thing that everybody is finally getting. I said it earlier, my dadโs 65 and still working, but thereโs so many people that are ready at that 65, where Iโm out. So in the six years, whatโs going to happen? We donโt even know. We canโt even begin to fathom whatโs going to happen. You think prices are high now for a plumber, just wait. Maybe Iโll go get my plumbing license. I grew up in plumbing. I could probably do it.
Brandon Patterson:
But thereโs going to be a lot of opportunities out there, and thatโs part of what our mission is, too, allow people to see your opportunity for growth right away is huge.
Tom Houghton:
A wise man once told me thereโs a lot of ways to make a living. And I would say the opportunity is definitely out there if you want it.
Brandon Patterson:
I would agree. The thing with opportunities, too, and the trades in general, is everybody just thinks that you have to be the one getting dirty, swinging the hammer, blah, blah, blah. In my opinion, if youโre an interior designer and you work with custom homes, youโre in the trades. So thereโs just different aspects to what you do, but youโre involved in making this bigger workforce. So you could work on, I brought up Apple and Facebook earlier, you could be working on one of those projects, but you could be a project manager whoโs never actually stepped foot on the job. You know what I mean? Youโre not out there swinging a hammer and doing that stuff. So parents need to know that, too. And teachers need to know that youโre not always the one doing this backbreaking work, and a lot of it now isnโt always backbreaking. They have those exoskeletons that you can wear now that take the weight for picking up drywall or shingles or whatever thatโs โฆ Our parents couldnโt even imagine that stuff.
Tom Houghton:
I love the technology angle, again. You donโt want me to go to robots, Iโm telling you. Itโs the future.
Paul Wurth:
Letโs take that off air and Iโll go somewhere else. You guys talk robots.
Tom Houghton:
We will. We will. Yeah, we will do that.
Paul Wurth:
I think itโs really awesome what youโre doing, because youโre not trying to go be a plumber and make a ton of money, taking advantage of the situation. Youโre trying to do a way bigger thing to solve it. And I think thatโs really commendable. Itโs awesome.
Brandon Patterson:
Yeah, no, I appreciate it, and appreciate the platform today. Like I said, weโre just getting started, but weโve had a ton of momentum and a ton of movement, and we like what we see so far and just going to keep on going.
Paul Wurth:
Thatโs awesome, man.
Tom Houghton:
Weโll make sure we put in for our listeners into our show notes page, which is at buildertrend.com/podcast, weโll put in your website, information that we talked about today, but how people get involved potentially in Iowa Skilled Trades.
Brandon Patterson:
Absolutely, would be awesome.
Tom Houghton:
So, make sure you check that out. Thanks so much, Brandon, for joining us on the podcast today, we had a great time talking shop.
Paul Wurth:
Great time talking tech.
Tom Houghton:
Well, we had a great time talking tech.
Paul Wurth:
Yeah, you guys did.
Tom Houghton:
Yeah. Itโs going to get weird out there.
Paul Wurth:
Yeah. That is. Thanks again.
Tom Houghton:
Thank you.
Paul Wurth:
Appreciate you.
Tom Houghton:
Love what you heard? Donโt forget to rate and subscribe to our podcast so you can hear from more guests that will benefit your business. Also, please check out our show notes page for more information on what we discussed on this episode. You can find it at buildertrend.com/podcast. Thanks for listening, and weโll see you next time on โThe Building Code.โ
Paul Wurth:
Appreciate you.
Brandon Patterson | Iowa Skilled Trades
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