Nick Largura says there’s no time like the present to invest in the future of the skilled trades workforce. As CEO of a fourth-generation family business, he’s guiding his firm toward the next step of drumming up excitement for careers in construction.
Superior Construction is building a space for its future workforce with plans to break ground on an in-house facility at its Jacksonville, Florida, headquarters later this year, according to an announcement shared with Construction Dive.
The two-story, 13,000-square-foot training center will include classroom and office space, heavy equipment simulators and a gymnasium.
Here, Largura talks with Construction Dive on the timing of the facility, the mission behind the training and the value of a chain of mentorship.
Editor’s note: The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.
CONSTRUCTION DIVE: How did the plans for this training facility come about?
NICK LARGURA: I don't think there's ever a perfect time for an investment like this, but nonetheless, it was one that had continued to build up over the last five to seven years. It’s based on the need to train individuals for a generation that's aging out. The majority of our skilled craftspeople are over 40. The amount of employees coming in at a younger age is concerning.
That resulted in us starting a leadership development program, which is based both in the field and in the office, creating mentors and mentees. It's similar to a union’s apprenticeship program.
But what we're even more proud of is our field and our craft employees. We’re providing them with real hands-on experience with what they would experience in the field prior to going out. We think the exposure is going to be able to drum up some excitement for a new group of people.
Why was it important to focus on entry-level training and development?
We've had a high interest in captivating younger people finishing school who may be looking for opportunities in their summer times and want some qualified experience. We've got a lot of competition for labor, especially in the Florida market. And if you take the traditional path of entering into the trades, you only have so much upward mobility annually, which limits your ability to get to a really comfortable place financially in life.
So a big objective for us is to try to provide a jumpstart for some of these employees, which can make them more skilled. Therefore, they can earn more. We see that this is going to be an accelerant for people to be able to move up in different positions quicker, as well as filling the pipeline behind them.
Do you think younger people who are joining construction now are aware of the option of careers in the trades?
That's a big part of this initiative. When we built our current building about 25 years ago, we wanted to make a space that would be able to provide people with a different perspective of the industry.
I think by combining some of the new technology, we can present construction as something that's not outside of the technology realm. The industry still needs to utilize more technology. A lot of that is going to be incumbent upon the younger people who have that passion for implementing new tech.
I would say it's not the typical first pathway. What we want to do is just raise more awareness to the opportunities there because it is an uphill battle.
Can you describe more how this new facility will be used for training?
I would break that into three different categories.
We just welcomed our first group of high school students and they're actually working in some modular buildings we have temporarily at our facility to host them.
The second class is laborers in the field who don't have any skilled crafts on their resume, who we see the potential in. And it's a way to say, “Okay, how do we provide them that upward mobility?” And we're not just talking about physically building things. We're talking about leadership courses, ethics, communication. Essential skills.
The third one would be more office training. I can be a critic of it, but it is the way the world has evolved: There are more conversations through screens. And although I do think that can be very effective, there's a high value in getting people together and having that collective energy, seeing who your peers are and being able to exchange “war stories,” for lack of a better term. So that third group is an existing employee base that we want to continue to push continual learning on. This facility will be great for that.
You touched on the mentor/mentee relationship as a part of this new initiative. Why is that important to you?
This is my family business. I had several family members who were role models to me. I think it’s very important for anybody who's coming into this industry to not be overwhelmed by their lack of knowledge in the beginning, but to be able to have somebody that they could grow underneath.
The way we see it, every good mentor was at one point a mentee. They had somebody they looked up to and aspired to that gave them direction. And that's what we said in regard to the family element. If you had someone who mentored you, it's your obligation to mentor someone else.
