AGC California chapter, major builders partner to help subcontractor development

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Dive Brief:

The Associated General Contractors of California has partnered with construction giants on a new initiative to help grow small, local and diverse subcontractors in Los Angeles, according to an Oct. 14 announcement shared with Construction Dive.
The Prime Pipeline Alliance is an eight-month mentorship program that includes 12 subcontractors across the construction spectrum, per the announcement. As part of the program, associations and partner contractors will connect with subcontractor firms — which include plumbers, electricians and concrete contractors — through a shared curriculum.
Although traditional mentorship programs emphasize a one-to-one, mentor-mentee relationship, the cohort will instead have the six participating contractors all work with the chosen subcontractors over the course of the program, per the announcement.

Dive Insight:

The AGC of California and the AGC Construction Education Foundation established the partnership along with the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce, per the announcement. The associations were joined by builders Clark Construction, Hensel Phelps, PCL Construction, Skanska, Turner Construction and Webcor.

Through the eight sessions, the cohort firms will meet various parts of builders’ teams, including estimators, preconstruction leads and scope managers, said Erin Volk, senior vice president of workforce and community development at AGC of California and executive director of AGC CEF.

“This is by design; it was important that all six general contractors committed to exposing cohort participants to an ecosystem of support within their companies,” Volk told Construction Dive via email.

The AGC CEF and the city's African American Chamber of Commerce worked to avoid retreading ground and instead build on what was already working on the workforce development space in the region, Volk said.

“Majority of the general contractors each run their own regional development program, but this is the first time that there has been a gathering of general contractors, setting aside their usual friendly competition hat, in order to explore what happens when they link arms and commit to mentorship of the next generation of Small and Underrepresented firms, together,” Volk told Construction Dive via email.

Skanska, for example, runs its Construction Management Building Blocks program, which educates smaller, diverse companies and helps them achieve contracts with the Stockholm-based contractor. The contractor completed the Los Angeles World Airports Roadways, Utilities and Enabling project at Los Angeles International Airport in July, a project where it showcased its small and local business participation execution.