Join us every September in celebrating National Construction Appreciation Week. Recognize the hardworking professionals in trades like construction, plumbing, and electrical work, and learn about the rewarding career opportunities in these vital industries.
Malik Johnson
Every September, we celebrate National Construction Appreciation Week, a time to recognize the dedicated professionals who proudly work in trades like construction, plumbing, electrical work, and other jobs that keep America running. But it also serves as a reminder that we must work harder to raise awareness about these rewarding, high-paying jobs for people who may not know about the benefits and overwhelming need for workers in these critical careers. And the need is critical. The Associated Builders and Contractors estimates that the construction industry will need almost a million new workers over the next two years to replace a generation of retiring baby boomers.
Malik’s classroom
One of the biggest problems is that the industry tends to pull from the same talent pool. Shockingly, only 6.5% of construction workers in the U.S. are African American like me. But the reality is that there are barriers to young black men and women exploring careers in the construction trades, the biggest being a simple lack of visibility. If you are a black high school student, you almost certainly don’t know or ever see an African American working in construction. And without role models, it can be hard to envision having a career in construction yourself.
We need to change how we expose young black men and women to what are lucrative, fulfilling, highly in-demand careers in the skilled trades. There is a path to do so. I know because I’ve walked it myself.
My journey to a career in the skilled trades started in 2014 at what was perhaps my lowest point. I was a junior in high school. My parents were divorced, my mom had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and she and I were experiencing homelessness. We spent our nights sleeping on couches and floors in friends’ basements. I often didn’t know where my next meal would come from. That summer, Mike Brown was shot and killed by police in my hometown of Ferguson, Missouri, setting off a wave of protests that burned down over two dozen buildings in the city.
It was at that point that I met Dan Lester, an executive at design-build construction firm Clayco. He came to my high school – North Tech in Florissant – to talk to students about a new program Clayco had created called the Construction Career Development Initiative, or CCDI, aimed at exposing underrepresented populations to careers in the construction trades. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but Dan talked passionately about how the need to envision a future for ourselves and the opportunities that the construction industry could provide.
But Dan and his Clayco colleagues didn’t just come to my school once. They kept coming back. Dan would constantly tell me I needed to not only plan for my future after high school, but to discover my “why” and my “how” – the goals that would motivate me in my career. To that point, my only thought was to get a job to help provide for my mother and me. But the more I talked to Dan and learned about his career and his life, my “why” grew, and my perspective changed.
Through CCDI, Dan became my mentor in every way, taking me to jobsites to experience what a career in construction was like. But the things I remember most were when Dan would have my then girlfriend – now wife – and I over to his house on Saturday mornings for pancakes with his family. Seeing Dan, with his beautiful home, his beautiful family, and how he was able to provide for them, really made an impression on me. Dan would tell me, “I see a future in this for you,” and that inspired me to think about having a career rather than just a job, and my “why” became focused on the “how” I could create long-term stability for me and my family.
After high school, CCDI not only helped me start my career as a concrete laborer – where I helped build bridges, hospitals, and research labs – but they mentored me every step of the way. After a few years as a journeyman concrete laborer, I switched to being a pipefitter, first as a laborer, then a journeyman, and now as an apprentice with the Local 562 Pipe Fitters Union. A few years after being homeless, I was making close to a six-figure salary.
But most importantly, I love my job. I can’t wait to get to work every morning, and I love working on new projects, learning new skills, and being someone that can be counted on to do the job right.
Being the very first graduate of the CCDI program back in 2015 totally transformed my life, and my success story is the first of many. In the ten years since its founding, CCDI has assisted 175 students achieve full-time employment in the construction trades while awarding over $650,000 in scholarships to help students advance their education in a host of construction related fields.
While I owe my career in construction to the mentorship I received from CCDI, I wouldn’t be where I am without my mother’s strength and support. Despite going through a divorce, battling cancer, caring for my grandmother, and selling our house to keep us from foreclosure, she made sure I always had food, clothes, and a place to sleep, even when we were homeless. She cashed in her retirement savings to support us, helped me practice for interviews that helped me land my first job, and inspired me to never get up no matter how tough things got. She may not wear a hard hat, but she laid the foundation for everything I’ve achieved.
I was proud to both attend the graduation ceremony for CCDI’s 10th anniversary class earlier this summer while serving as a mentor every year to students whose shoes I was once in. I am proof that we can solve the labor shortage facing the construction industry. To do so, we have to be willing to both invest in programs to engage and train new talent pools of underrepresented populations while providing the mentors and role models, like Dan and my mom, to those students to help them envision what their future could be.
Malik Johnson is an apprentice pipefitter with U.A. Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 562 in St. Louis and a 2015 graduate of Clayco’s Construction Career Development Initiative (CCDI).
Construction Appreciation Week, skilled trades, construction careers, plumbing jobs, electrical work, high-paying trades, workforce development, trade careers awareness, construction industry recognition
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