As I was saying …

About 10 years ago, The Roofing Industry Alliance for Progress retained The Gallup Organization—the same company that does political polling—to conduct a study of the roofing work force. In reporting the findings, the Gallup folks told us the good news was we didn't have a complete disaster on our hands—yet. One key finding was that those who enter the trade want—and expect—to be trained in a systematic way, to learn a skill that will be theirs forever.

"Well," we said, "duh."

And here's what the Gallup people replied: With few exceptions, you don't do it. You put your workers on rooftops and call it "on-the-job training." You don't invest in new hires until they've proved themselves worthy of being trained. And guess what? Forty percent of those who stayed were prepared to leave their first week on the job.

The Gallup study caused roofing contractors to change the way they think about worker training. And as a result, NRCA University's training programs now are based on a career-path model; they include leadership and management training for foremen; and they recognize the need for easily accessible, quality educational materials.

In June, NRCA University launched Roofing 101, our first online educational endeavor. It evolved directly from the Gallup report. The idea, of course, is to have training materials available 24/7 so training can easily be accomplished on rainy days or weekends.

And Roofing 101 is just the beginning. In development are online educational programs related to roofing, energy and the environment. We're also planning to put our roofing-specific OSHA 10-hour class online, and we've applied for a grant from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop an online fall-protection program. Additionally, we are working with the Institute for Building and Home Safety to create online materials addressing the proper use of hail-resistant shingles.

All this takes time and money, of course. And all this is in response to what contractors tell us consistently: If we're going to address our work force issues, our efforts must begin with having top-quality, easily accessible training materials.

NRCA is committed to that approach and has invested heavily in doing even more. Now, we just need to be sure the materials are used. As we said 10 years ago, "Duh."

Bill Good is NRCA's executive vice president.