As I was saying …

Everyone in the roofing industry can agree with the proposition that training and education are crucial to the industry's future and require a great deal of diligence, thought and effort. Deciding how to move this from a proposition to a reality gets more dicey.

For example, should NRCA be the leader in training entry-level workers? If so, where does that leave union apprenticeship programs? Is a certification program for workers the logical approach? If it is, how is that developed, marketed and administered? Does NRCA run the risk of alienating members who already have superior worker training programs? And—not insignificantly—who's going to pay for all of this?

Here are a few things we know:

• We have trouble recruiting people into the trade because we lack a clearly defined training program and career path.
• We have some first-class training conducted by union apprenticeship programs, manufacturers, distributors and individual contractors.
• We have some training known by the euphemism "on-the-job training," which sometimes is little more than a way to weed out those who are physically unable to do the work.
• We have a lot of industry leaders absolutely committed to the notion of training.

So it seems to me it's time to get our collective acts together. We need to decide whether we're really serious about worker certification programs, and if so, we need to make sure we get adequate funding to make them work.

We need to get all stakeholders on board, including the International Roofers Union, manufacturers and distributors who conduct training programs, and the many contractors and local and state associations involved in training. We need a grand plan so we can deliver a consistent message to our current—and future—employees.

We need to find and train trainers. Trainers may be employed by community and vocational colleges (an underused resource) or even high schools. Wherever they are, we need to identify them.

We need to look beyond the traditional ways we've approached training. There's much to be said for online learning, provided it can be delivered in languages other than English and is available during nonproductive work hours.

And we need to look beyond training only field workers. We must have a clear plan for training—and keeping—foremen, superintendents, project managers and estimators. Again, nontraditional learning seems to make a lot of sense.

We've been talking about—and around—this issue for as long as I can remember. Now, we need clear thinking and an unmistakable sense of direction.

Bill Good is NRCA's executive vice president.