Supporting students in Southern California

By Victoria Sharples, RCASoCal. 

Learn how the industry came together to support roofing students from Kern County, California!  

SkillsUSA is a organization that was founded in the 1960s with the goal of getting students involved in the trades. Their work connects students at CTE and high schools across the country with more than 120 different trades. As of 2023, thanks to the efforts of National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) and other industry leaders, roofing is now one of the trades represented in the competition.   

This type of outreach is crucial for industries, such as roofing, that have faced challenges with persistent labor shortages. The roofing program through SkillsUSA introduces the younger generation to a standardized curriculum designed by NRCA that teaches them about TPO roofing. From there, NRCA has continuously worked to expand the reach of the program.  

Their goal is to get individual states to add roofing to their SkillsUSA curriculums while also encouraging high schools/CTE training centers to adopt the program as well. While challenging, they quickly realized that the best way to go about this is rallying support from local roofing professionals! 

NRCA worked with their members to mentor students from four states who advanced to compete at the national competition in Atlanta in 2023. That number grew the following year to 12 states and now, in 2025, 25 states are represented! It was an exciting leap, with California sending its first student!  

We were able to gain exposure as an accepted trade by having students compete at the national SkillsUSA competition. Schools come by and many were interested in adding roofing to their CTE programs. From there, the word spreads. 

One such school that took notice was the Kern County High School. Chad Wright, construction trades instructor, was at the national championships and wanted to add roofing to their training options. He persistently requested roofing be added to the California SkillsUSA competitions. After a last-minute approval, he reached out to the NRCA to help with the necessary curriculum and training materials.  

Kern County needed roofing industry support for the upcoming Ontario competition. Having no industry support in their own community, NRCA contacted the Roofing Contractors Association of Southern California (RCASoCal), who rallied together the rest of the resources needed for the competition.  

All of these efforts culminated on a beautiful April day, in Ontario, California, with four students dressed in uniform and full fall protection. With a four-hour window, they installed insulation and TPO, cutting and welding around penetration and corners. Beforehand, the students took a written test and received safety training before moving onto the installation. They each did their best to complete the task and a winner was chosen.  

Never before was it so apparent of the true meaning of the phrase, “It takes a village.” This event came to fruition because of a little help from a lot of people.  

A round of thank you’s 

Many thanks to: 

• Chad Wright from Kern High School for stopping by the SkillsUSA Roofing Pavilion in Atlanta last year and being inspired enough to fight for roofing in California. 
• June Brentanos and Amy Staska at NRCA for providing the communication, foundation and knowledge so this could be developed to benefit Southern California.  
• Shane Muncy from NRCA for flying to Bakersfield from Nashville, then on to Ontario, to assist the students.  Without him knowing how to set it up, do the paperwork and the competition experience this never would have happened.  
• Matt and Hector Guttierrez from Shell Roofing for driving three hours to Bakersfield to work with the students when they found out that no contractor stepped forward to mentor them.   
• Competition judges Ian Bailey at GAF Commercial and Robert Flores from KRGS Roofing for spending time with the students, coaching and motivating them and being our judges. 
• Highland Commercial Roofing and HCI Equity Partners for their generous donation that provided the funding to launch our Workforce Development Program.  This enabled us to provide the tools and equipment to the students for the competition and help our newly minted California winner get to Atlanta to represent our state. 
• Ryen Van Grol at Assembly Supplies Co. in Escondido, California for loaning us the hot air tools for the competition. 
• Jeff Meinhart at Roofmaster Products for donating the fall protection gear for the competition. 
• RCASoCal Association President Brian Hoyt from Hoyt Roofing who, with 10-days’ notice, agreed to build and deliver four of the specially designed mock-ups, with a “No Problem.” 
• The 15 students that went through the NRCA TPO TRAC program and the four students, Fatima, Juan, Gregory and Hector, that were selected to compete, training before and after school to learn our trade. 
• Finally, I would like to thank myself for resisting the urge to not get involved. To think of all I would have missed. I encourage anyone to take the time to get involved, just a little bit.  Remember that it only takes a little help, from a lot of people. 

I am sure that those in attendance were all pretty touched by the experience, and we realized we were witnessing something special. After spending the time and learning about the process there is no hesitation that the RCASoCal and all the parties involved will be back next year with some local schools of our own.    

How you can help! 

SkillsUSA and other CTE programs are an important step in changing the perception of the roofing industry and securing its future. Here are some ways to get involved:  

• Be available for the donations of tools, equipment, supplies and money. 
• Volunteer to build an installation mock-up in a school or for the state competition. 
• Be a contractor mentor to a high school or ROP class. 
• Help in reaching out to ROP centers and high schools. 
• Retire from the ladder and become a teacher in the next CTE school 

Remember, for every five that retire from the roofing industry only two are replaced.  Please contact RCASoCal or Southern California or National Roofing Contractors Association for more information. 

Original article and photo source Roofing Contractors Association of Southern California (RCASoCal).