New workforce initiative aims to strengthen roofing's talent pipeline

By Jenny Yu. 

Owens Corning and Futures Inc. team up to create the Roofing Career Network: the first standardized workforce development system for roofing nationwide. 

The roofing industry continues to grapple with a persistent workforce shortage, prompting manufacturers, contractors and industry partners to rethink how they attract and develop talent. During a recent Coffee Conversations®, Karen Edwards spoke with Jon Gardner of Owens Corning® and Geoff Cramer of Futures Inc. about a new initiative designed to strengthen the industry's talent pipeline. 

Identifying the gaps 

According to Jon, labor and talent shortages remain one of the top concerns among roofing contractors. He cited a combination of factors contributing to the challenge, including an aging workforce, rising labor costs and a lack of qualified candidates entering the trades. "There is a significant supply gap, hundreds of thousands of open roles. There’s a skills gap, with credentialing lagging," Jon said.  

He also pointed to what he called a "perception gap" surrounding roofing careers: "Once you're in the roofing industry, you say to yourself, wow, I can't believe I found this amazing place to create a career. But the perception for folks outside — it's there." 

Lastly, Jon noted a system gap, in which business owners should work toward hiring to build a pipeline with proper education, training and employment processes so that people feel like they’re part of the organization within the culture. 

Geoff added that despite roofing's accessibility as a career path, awareness remains low among young people. "The roofing industry is a $56 billion industry, yet it has no standards for training and entry-level credentials," he stated. "We have 11 million students in community colleges, and they have zero places to go to explore the roofing industry." 

Filling the gaps with the Roofing Career Network 

To address these challenges, Owens Corning has partnered with Futures Inc., a workforce development provider, to create the Roofing Career Network: a national workforce development initiative that aims to connect students, community colleges and roofing contractors through standardized training and technology-driven job placement. 

"We're creating an ecosystem that allows our contractors to look at high-quality students, candidates who are actively seeking an opportunity in the trades connected through the community colleges that are working with these students to put them through the training," Jon said. 

“The beauty, and what's taken three years [to develop], is how do you connect the dots across an integrated solution?” Geoff shared. “This coming fall, we're launching this national program that has the training fundamentals with engaging video that's going to be provided free for almost 23,000 high schools so these kids can and their families can get excited about the opportunities in roofing and find the fastest training program possible.”  

Geoff added that these programs will also be free for contractors to provide emerging crew members not in high school or college with the same resources, from salespeople to installers and estimators.  

Made possible through partnership 

This initiative highlights the importance of collaboration across the industry. Geoff said the partnership between Owens Corning, Futures Inc., community contractors and contractors is what makes Roofing Career Network so unique. 

“We provide a national platform that connects the dots, but it's about people, process and technology all working together. It's really a collaborative effort that's going to make it successful,” Geoff stated. “It’s never been done before, but it's designed to support the industry with their greatest needs while also supporting our education partners who are desperately trying to connect these individuals with jobs.” 

With Futures Inc. providing the platform and Owens Corning taking the initiative to develop the first national standards for training nationwide, the Roofing Career Network is sure to be a game changer. 

Listen to the full Coffee Conversations or Watch the webinar to discover more insights on workforce development and the Roofing Career Network.