UWs Construction Management Program Receives Grant for Residential Construction Program Development

The Construction Management Program at the University of Wyoming has received a four-year, $80,000 grant to develop and implement residential construction training.

The UW College of Engineering and Applied Science program received a Homebuilding Education Leadership Program (HELP) grant from the National Housing Endowment, the philanthropic arm of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). This is the first award of this type for the UW Construction Management Program.

For more than a decade, the HELP initiative has awarded grants to leading colleges and universities to help them create, expand or enhance residential construction management programs. The initiative’s primary goals are to encourage academic institutions to provide programs that respond not only to current issues affecting the homebuilding industry, but also provide the tools and skill sets needed by graduates to anticipate and prepare for the future; and increase the number of qualified college graduates who enter the residential construction industry.

NAHB represents the largest network of craftsmen, innovators and problem solvers dedicated to building and enriching communities, operating at the local, state and national levels.

“The development of residential construction training in Wyoming is imperative,” says Francois Jacobs, the grant’s principal investigator, and a UW associate professor in civil and architectural engineering and construction management. “This grant will help us secure a capable future construction workforce in Wyoming.”

The core focus of the grant will:

-- Integrate residential construction training as a mandatory degree requirement for all students in the UW Construction Management Program.

-- Develop an articulation agreement platform with Wyoming community colleges and high schools, which will allow community college students to transfer up to 30 credits toward their UW construction management degrees and high school students to transfer concurrent enrollment credits.

-- Implement a financially sound, stackable credential workforce training program for workers in the field that is fully supported and funded by the Southeast Wyoming Builders Association and the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services. This training program will provide training for up to 40 construction workers per semester.

“Until recently, no accredited construction education and training existed in Wyoming, causing construction skill attainment to lag behind that of adjacent states,” Jacobs says. “The Wyoming State Legislature and the University of Wyoming have committed to our four-year Bachelor of Science in construction management degree program in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. This grant is another testament to that commitment.”

To learn more about UW’s Construction Management Program, visit www.uwyo.edu/civil/construction-management/index.html.