The Construction Education Foundation of Georgia (CEFGA) is expanding its “Construction Ready” program into Gwinnett County beginning March 29, 2021. Construction Ready takes Georgians through a free 20-day construction education program that ends with training, credentialing and job placement. The Gwinnett training facility will be located at the Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Norcross (map). For more information and to register, applicants need to visit -  https://constructionready.org/career-seekers/overview/. 

The expansion into the Gwinnett region is part of a major growth of the program across Georgia, financed in part by the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund (a part of the CARES Act). In August 2020, Governor Kemp announced CEFGA was selected to receive $3.3 million to expand the Construction Ready program. The GEER funding supports broadband and connectivity extensions, mental health services, workforce training, childcare, and tech innovation.

Since 2014, CEFGA through the Construction Ready program has trained more than 1,000 workers of all ages for a successful career in construction. Current training facilities are located at Westside Works, Build Cobb and Impact Church. Successes of the program include: 

• 97% job placement by end of training
• Average starting salary of $12-15/hour
• 70% of participants employed with same company one year later

“We are excited to expand the Construction Ready program into Gwinnett,” says CEFGA President and CEO Scott Shelar. “There are construction jobs in the midst of this pandemic and we need Georgians trained and certified to fill those positions across the state.”

The goal of the Construction Ready program is to help close the workforce skills gap. The Nationwide Workforce Initiative finds that for every five people that retire from the skilled professions, there is only one apprentice to fill the job. The lack of skilled workers is also a problem in Georgia as a shortage of more than 61,000 workers was reported in 2019. The shortage has continued through the pandemic. Closing this skills gap by educating more Georgians about careers in the skilled professions is CEFGA’s primary goal.

“It’s great to see CEFGA allocating Georgia’s GEER funding so quickly in Gwinnett County as part of the Construction Ready program,” said Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. “These are challenging times for our state, but we will continue to work around the clock to support our students and teachers, improve outcomes, and get hardworking Georgians back to work.”