A Letter from the CEO
What a thrilling year it has been! The contracting industry in the Rocky Mountain region has reached record highs for recent years. We have seen the private market rebound tremendously and growth in our area seems to see no sign of stopping. This is great news for the success of our merit shop companies! And it has been a great year for IECRM. We hit a milestone 1,000 students enrolled simultaneously in our apprenticeship training program! Again, we are the largest electrical training school in the country! Truly an occasion to celebrate!
With growth, there have certainly been growing pains and challenges. Namely, the “skills gap” that we have seen in the need for qualified labor. Where are the folks we need so desperately to bring into our industry to meet the needs of our clients and customers? This skills gap in what we have produced in our culture through our educational system and meeting the needs of employers and industry is continuing to widen day-by-day. IECRM has worked on several levels to fill in this gap, reforming the system through regulatory and law-making efforts, speaking in the region and across the country on the need to change and empower our current view of skilled trades labor, and we have worked to attract new talent into the industry.
One of the immediate successes that we’ve brought to our members in this past year was the introduction of a Job Fair for openings in our local markets. In June, IECRM advertised far and wide to the general public a targeted campaign to draw in new talent to help meet the needs of our industry. That same month, we hosted a free job fair for our member companies. In the 3-hour fair, we were able to assist members in hiring over 60 positions on site! We then hosted a second job fair in September to meet continued labor demands, helping to make connections to even more talent into our member companies. IECRM is serious about serving your needs. We are striving to not only serve your business needs today, but to help lead you and your companies to an even brighter, more prosperous future.
I invite you to read through the rest of this timely recap of events in this annual newsletter and share in our other successes to better the merit shop contracting industry throughout our region. Thank you for your continued support of our association, our Career College, and all you do to make IECRM the best trade association in the country!