Industry Experts are Encouraged to Share Their Wealth of Knowledge

RCS Influencer John Ebenshade Jr. says that long-time industry professionals can benefit their industry by getting in touch with CTE schools.

Editor’s note: The following consists of a conversation between RCS Multimedia Manager Megan Ellsworth, and National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA)'s Director of Workforce Development, John Esbenshade.

Megan Ellsworth: It takes a second to start. Okay, we are recording. Okay. Hello, my name is Megan Ellsworth here at rooferscoffeeshop.com back again for an Influencer Response. And this month we are talking about the generational knowledge gap and I'm here with John Esbenshade from NRCA. Hi, John.

John Esbenshade: Hey, Megan. Good to see you.

Megan Ellsworth: Good to see you, too. So this month's question is how are you bridging the growing generational knowledge and skill gap? And I'm excited to hear what you have to say and what NRCA is doing.

John Esbenshade: Great. Well, thanks for having us, Megan. So the most important thing that the roofing industry can do to take these people who have built up this knowledge, this expertise in the industry is trying to get them into the places where traditional education is already happening in the trades, namely career and technical education or trade schools. It's so important for those people who have built that to take that repository of knowledge, in some cases, generations of their family's work and reach out about how to get in that space, how to get in those CTE schools, and in front of those students that are going to be the next generation of leaders in the industry.

John Esbenshade: The schools themselves are desperate for people of that expertise to come in and bestow that trusted knowledge. They are actively incentivized to do it through grant funding and a bevy of other incentives that are available to them. But what is very much sort of an emerging connection is that connection between the roofing industry and those CTE schools.

John Esbenshade: So this is really the most important time for people who have that knowledge and expertise, and are motivated to do it to reach out, and get connected to their local CTE community, and figure out who are going to be the next people coming in, and how can I empower them with that knowledge from the start of their education in the industry?

Megan Ellsworth: That's amazing. That is so true. Brilliantly said. How do you think contractors like on a day-to-day basis, how do you think they can start implementing bringing this knowledge gap together?

John Esbenshade: So, influence the trainings that are happening in their local communities and make sure that they're connecting, and keeping us informed at the national level. We know that there's this resource out there, but cultivating it can be a relatively challenging task for anyone.

John Esbenshade: What we can do at NRCA is we can connect with local CTE schools, local partners. And then from there, we all kind of have to collaborate together in terms of building this structure that we can then take, and implement in other places where it's going to do the industry good.

Megan Ellsworth: Awesome. Well said. Thank you so much. Any last words of wisdom to contractors out there about this topic?

John Esbenshade: Yeah, certainly. NRCA is actively, very actively encouraging contractors to sit on local CTE committee advisory councils. But reach out to the schools that have construction programs, say that you're interested in supporting an emerging roofing program, and then contact me at NRCA or our education team with some information about what steps can be done to not only bring that knowledge to those schools, but then also create what we're actively trying to do, which is a national student roofing contest, and we have all the parameters for that. This very much falls in line with the broader goal in that respect.

Megan Ellsworth: Awesome. Thank you so much for chatting with me today. I look forward to hearing what you have to say next month.

John Esbenshade: Well, thanks a lot, Megan. I appreciative to be here and very happy with RoofersCoffeeShop, and what everything y'all are doing. It's really fantastic. Thank you.

Megan Ellsworth: Aw, thank you so much and we'll be chatting next month.

John Esbenshade: Next month.

John Esbenshade Jr. is the director of workforce development at NRCA. See his full bio here.