John Esbenshade - What’s happening at Skills USA 2023? - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with John Esbenshade. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Speaker 1: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips with Heidi. Explore the roofing industry through the eyes of a long-term professional within the trade. Listen for insights, interviews, and exciting news in the roofing industry today.

Hello, and welcome to another Roofing Road Trips from Roofer's Coffee Shop. My name is Heidi Ellsworth, and I am here with one of my actual new favorite people in the roofing industry, John Esbanshade with NRCA. And I have to tell you, I've been working with this young gentleman for a while now, and I'm pretty dang impressed and excited to have him back again on our podcast to tell you all about SkillsUSA. So John, welcome back.

John Esbenshade: Thanks, Heidi. Wow, that's a heck of an intro. I need to be introduced like that every Thanksgiving dinner from here on out, with that kind of gusto. Thanks a lot for having me back. Excited to be here.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it. Well, you and I have been spending a lot of time together. You've been working. I'm just so impressed with everything you've done to get us ready to go to SkillsUSA, and I'm really excited to talk about that. But you know what? Before we get started, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself, talk a little bit about your position at NRCA, and maybe a little bit about NRCA.

John Esbenshade: Yeah, certainly. We have been working on it very hard together, I think is the right pronoun there. But yeah, my name is John Esbanshade, and I'm fortunate enough to serve as the director of workforce development for the National Roofing Contractors Association. What my day in and day out is, is trying to address the workforce shortage facing the future of the roofing industry.

To be clear, no one said it would be easy when I started, and no one was right. It's been a great couple years so far, thanks to a highly motivated industry, and collaborating with people like yourself and many others. I'm very happy with where we're going so far, and looking forward to SkillsUSA here next month.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. I have to tell you, I'm so excited for this, the thought of thousands, thousands of young people. And not just young people, all kinds of folks who are going back to the trade schools, who are in vocational schools, who are competing in SkillsUSA. I can't wait. I'm so excited. So I've had these conversations with a lot of people, John, and they're like, "What is SkillsUSA?" So why don't you tell everybody what SkillsUSA is?

John Esbenshade: Certainly. SkillsUSA was an organization, a national organization, founded in the 1960s, designed to prepare the next generation of America's skilled labor. At the very onset of that was construction and architecture, and now it is 372,000 active members around the United States, covering everything from EMT, robotics, cosmetology, and estheticians. Is that how you pronounce that word?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, I think that is right. Yeah.

John Esbenshade: Guessing that's how you say it. And then of course, all aspects of the construction industry. And getting roofing added to that has very much been a big part of my day-to-day for the last year and a half.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: You know what? It's really hard to believe that roofing hasn't been a part of that.

John Esbenshade: It's true. I've heard heard a lot of people say a lot of things about how obvious a component roofing is to the construction industry, but my little tidbit on it is, when I count my blessings, the roof over my head is pretty close to the top of the list, if not exclusively on the top of the list. So I think it's been a huge oversight that the roofing industry has now, for the past three or four years, really, really been actively engaging with, to try to make up that stop gap.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: When we go to SkillsUSA, and we're going to be there June 20th through the 22nd, we're going to be seeing a number of competitors who are coming in there to compete on commercial roofing. We have the mock-ups, they're going to come in, and they're going to compete. They've been doing it in their own home state. So kind of tell us the history. I know, I'm sitting on the CTE committee with you, and it's taken a lot of work to get the contractors, to get the teams in each state. Then we've been working on sponsors. So how has this all worked, because I know there's a lot of contractors out there listening right now who are going to be like, "I want a team next year." How's that happen?

John Esbenshade: It takes a variety of different ingredients to bake this cake, and each state's cake has to be slightly, slightly different, because one of the nice things about SkillsUSA is also one of the difficult things about dealing with it, which is, it can be individualized based on the needs of the people in the state. So okay, that can be a strength point, but when you're trying to create a recipe, it'd be nice if there was only one way to do it.

If a contractor is interested in engaging with SkillsUSA, the first thing they need to do is find a CTE school in their area. CTE is Career and Technical Education. Colloquially, you might call them trade schools. Now they call them CTE schools. And there are 4,696 CTE schools around the country that are directly connected with SkillsUSA, which is to say that school prepares students in a trade, then there is a regional SkillsUSA contest, with the winner going to compete in a state SkillsUSA contest, and then the winner of that competing in a National SkillsUSA contest.

And in order to do that, you have to have a standardized mock-up. What are they going to be doing? What is the materials list? What is the scoring rubric? What are the trainings that are available to prepare students for it? How long does it take to get into those trainings? And then, well, who's going to provide this training? How is the industry going to connect with a career in technical education school, to offer training specific to this, to these students?

And that is where the roofing industry really can't connect, is offer that sponsorship, offer those materials and tools, because just like the roofing industry, we are interested in trying to find the next generation of leaders for this industry, the schools want their students coming through and being successful when they go onto their career. So it's this really exciting point, where we're finally all starting to come together, and it's finally starting to mesh in some places, and it's truly a rewarding job.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Let's talk about one of the founders, one of the first people out there contractor-wise, and I'm sure there's others, so if I'm forgetting any you can help me, John, but I want to talk about Sherry Miles with Miles Roofing. And she has had a team from Virginia that she has been growing. She's going into the schools, the CTE schools, she's teaching, she's a partner with them, she's on their boards. Talk a little bit about what Sherry's done to grow this in her estate.

John Esbenshade: Sherry did the first thing, which is the hardest thing to do, which is to create a direct relationship with a CTE school. Okay, fine. We want to get roofing added to the CTE school. What's required? Well, what Sherry did was, Sherry made those relationships with that school, she sat in on CTE committees. Every school is going to have one. They open the doors and they hope that industry comes in to try to sponsor some of all that's needed for those students.

Sherry was steadfast in her efforts. This was before we had a standardized training curriculum to prepare the students, a standardized mock-up to get the students ready on. She was just trying to get roofing involved in those schools. And through determination and consistency, being really two of my favorite characteristics for Sherry, they started to see that Sherry was the real deal. So when it came time that we had all those other components, it was really just great. This is what we've been waiting for, turnkey, let's run it.

So yeah, very excited that Virginia's going to be sending representatives to compete at the national contest. I think they'll be a tough one to beat. I saw their work that they did at the state contest. Should be really good.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: So who are some of the other states that are going to be there competing against Virginia?

John Esbenshade: So we are still in the question mark phase with that. We know we're going to have four this year. Registration just closed yesterday, and I'll be transparent, we had eight state contests. Four is a little bit disappointing of a number for me, in terms of, for the first national contest. In terms of logistics, though, it is beautifully, beautifully simplistic, because now we're going to have two states competing on the first day of the contest. That is the 21st of June. And another two competing on the second day of the contest, the 22nd of June. And that afternoon, on June 22nd, we will be crowning a national champion out of those four.

After that, we're hoping that with all the presence that NRCA and the roofing industry, yourself included, are going to be having at the roofing pavilion at SkillsUSA, that massive 20 by 60 space with what, nine companies? We're hoping that we start to generate enough interest where teachers and students come by, we give them the opportunity to actually do some of this work hands-on. It's like, "Oh, this is how you weld a seam. Oh, that's not bad. This is how you flash a T-joint. Great." It's fantastic. Now go and tell your teacher you want to learn commercial roofing, because this is really the guts of the contest.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Well, and I think the thing that's so cool about it is that what you're doing comes from ProCertification and the track, the training, from NRCA. So this is something that's established, that teachers can get their hands on, they can get the track course to train. This is something that, as the young people are learning these kind of systems, and it flies right into when they do go into roofing, we're going to say that positively, when they do go into roofing, it falls right into this ProCertification. So it really, I think, is brilliant for all of you at NRCA and how hard you've worked, but to really start at this age in getting them used to all of this.

John Esbenshade: It's so important to establish what the benchmarks are for advanced certification in the roofing industry. And this has been something that in my initial research about the roofing industry, like four or five years ago, I was surprised when I couldn't see any outstanding singular, nationally recognized certification that could attribute someone to being an expert in a single installation practice. I mean, shoot, how many different kinds of systems there are, there should be something that is, "Okay, I can hold this up and say this is mine. This is the result of labor and training and practice and diligence," and truly making roofing a recognized craft.

And as a student goes, we want them to see ProCertification as the goal. And that's why we use almost the exact same mock-up. We try to keep things as consistent as possible to build that learning pathway for the students, starting with track, skills USA and that mock-up, and eventually leading to a ProCertified installer who's going to be a valuable, valuable asset to a crew.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. I love it. And I love how it's all coming together so well. And before we go on, because I want to talk more about that NRCA booth and our sponsors who are in there, but really when you're looking at this, I just want everybody to be aware that not only are we going to have the commercial roofing for the first time, and I would compare it to the Olympics, you have to go a couple times demoing it before it becomes an actual sport, very similar in SkillsUSA, you need to demo for a couple years, and then it's an actual competition.

This is our first demo, so we have time to grow from those four teams to be a lot larger, but we're also really looking at all of those people. And again, I want to say young people, but it's all ages who go back to CTE schools, and really change careers, get involved, and we want them all to see how cool roofing is.

So we have this 20 by 60 booth, and in there we have Johns Manville who is a major sponsor, and going to be showing welding and having some little heat welding competition, just some fun things. We have IB Roof, who is donating all of the materials in the competition itself. So those four states will be doing IB Roof systems, PVC. Tell us a little bit, I want to make sure we don't leave out the... You're going to have to tell me what it's called.

John Esbenshade: Team works?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Team works. So TAMCO, who is one of our sponsors and will be in NRCA Booth, is also donating all of the shingles for the team works. So just real quick, John, tell everybody, what is team works, and how cool is it that we finally have shingles going on?

John Esbenshade: The team works contest is really, really interesting, and if you're going to be in Atlanta, and you're going to come by the SkillsUSA Roofing Pavilion, you will see the team works contest, because our booth is going to be right in between the commercial roofing contest, in front of us, and the team works contest behind us.

And what team works is, it's five person teams who are responsible for building a structure that has a masonry component, a carpentry component, an electrical component, a plumbing component, and now a roofing component. Last year was the first year where we had any kind of roof with that team works contest, and I can tell you that the work left a lot to be desired. So now we're going into year two, it is a far more complex challenge for these teams to do. They're going to have to be up on a ladder.

Not only is TAMCO and SRS donating the shingles for it, but they're also donating the underlayment and the perimeter edge metal. It's really great that we have such a great industry that understands the value of what this could potentially be. We want to make sure that the people who are engaging in that team works contest, many of them are going to end up being carpentry apprentices, and many of those carpentry apprentices are going to end up shingling houses.

Like you said, some of them are high school age, but a lot of them are in technical colleges around the country. They need to know how to do that right, right now, because eventually that's going to be someone's home. And well, it's complicated, and it will be the difference between who wins that team works contest, for which there are 39 teams this year. Between first and second, it's going to come down to the roof. That much I can assure you.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Well, and it's amazing. Again, it's amazing. This is only the second year that team works has had a roof. Every structure needs a roof. I'm just tell telling you. So I'm really excited to see that. In fact, I'm kind of worried. John, I have to tell you, Tim, my husband, is going to be there working the booth with us, and I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep him in the booth. He's going to be over there wanting to check all that out. It's going to be pretty cool.

John Esbenshade: Well, fortunately we're going to have enough manpower between you and all of our exhibitors and NRCA staff, where I'm not going to hold the reins back on Tim. You shouldn't either. If you guys want to explore that space and really get an understanding, I'm hoping that from that week at SkillsUSA, you'll go out and you're going to preach the gospel of it, and you're going to convince people to come and see it next year for themselves. And that's how we get the industry invested in this kind of organization for long-term. That's very much the goal.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. It is so exciting. And I don't want to leave anybody out, because SRS, great sponsor, both in delivering materials, donating materials, being a sponsor, and really helping with the finance, because it takes a lot to put all this together. We also have Platinum Roofing with RoofConnect, and they're going to be there.

And then it's really exciting, and I really give you credit for this. You were like, "We need to show the industry." So we worked, and National Women in Roofing will have a table. Roofing Technology Think Tank, RT3, will have a table. And then Roofer's Coffee Shop and Roofing Contractor Magazine will be sharing a table, so that we can show the industry, not just our great sponsors, obviously NRCA, and everything great they do, but also that bigger view of the associations involved with the industry and the media.

John Esbenshade: It's very exciting. If you ever tune in on YouTube and you just see a blur occasionally going by the screen, that's me running all over these three halls making sure that everything's exactly how it needs to go. It's very exciting. It is a lot of pressure, but this is the industry coming to connect with this other industry that's training these kids for careers in the construction industry. What an exciting and blessed thing to be a part of.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, I am thrilled. I am so excited to be a part of it. Karen Edwards will be there, I'll be there. We'll be coming live on YouTube. Tim will be there, and then Rick Damato with Roofing Contractor Magazine. And we have a number of ladies from National Women in Roofing, some other folks from technology. So everybody watch YouTube, watch it that week of the 20th through the 22nd. We're going to have so much, and we'll try to catch John as he runs by.

Real quick, we already talked about the other trades that are there, but one of the things that I find so exciting is that we are going to have people from all different trades, whether that's culinary or cosmetology or anything, and they're going to be coming through our booth, too, and checking out roofing. So we're going to have some roofing respect going on while we're there.

John Esbenshade: Roofing has very much been, for lack of a better phrase, a well-kept secret in the construction industry amongst these people. When I'm having conversations with CTE schools around the country, and they'll say, "Well, I don't think we're doing any low slope roofing education in our schools." I'm like, "No one is anywhere, at least not that I've talked to yet." And obviously that's a huge oversight.

There's so much more to roofing than just hammering a course of shingles, and it's really exciting to get to show some of these woodworking students, or some of these robotics kids, or be able to show the people who are doing that commercial drone contest, like, "Well, this is who the you're actually going to be working with, is these kind of roofing companies."

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And we're going to have a drone there.

John Esbenshade: And we're going to have a drone. I like having the cool stuff there. The kids are going to like it, VR and drones, and I don't know. There's no reason for us to have an Xbox there, is there?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Well, we could bring one. You never know. It could be fun. They're going to be long days, let me tell you. We might need a little Xbox time.

John Esbenshade: I'll see if we can work that into the budget.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay. Perfect. I think I have one at home. So if people want to attend SkillsUSA, if they're in the Atlanta area, because I don't think I mentioned this at first, this is in Atlanta, Georgia, it's at the World Congress Convention Center, and if someone wants to attend, can they just walk up? Can they just come in and get tickets and go in? How does that work?

John Esbenshade: Yeah. There are a couple of ways you can do it. The best way is to just go on and purchase a single day pass as a member of industry. It's 35 bucks. So, it's Atlanta, I know firsthand that the Braves are out of town that week. So if you are in Atlanta and you are looking for something to do for $35, you can see 3000 of the best career and technical education students in the United States go and compete for national championships in over 130 different contests. Honestly, it sounds better than a lot of the kind of baseball that gets played these days, anyway.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, there you go. There you go. And what should we be expecting for future SkillsUSA? So what's 2024, 2025 look like for you, John?

John Esbenshade: The fortunate thing about where we are now in terms of where we're hoping we end up on this journey is, the roofing industry has promised to do all the following. Donate all the tools needed, donate all the materials needed, donate all the training course costs needed, and to schedule with schools to come in and deliver the training to their students.

Now, two things happen whenever I say this, and I'm on a conversation with a contractor and a school. The school says, "Are you sure? That's a lot." And the contractor says, "We are sure that's not a lot." So it's really a square peg in a square hole kind of situation. What we're hoping is, since Sherry Miles last year, we had one state, we've been able to turn that into, 22 states voted to add the contest this year. Out of those 22, eight had state championships, four of those sent their winners to the national contest.

I expect fully for us to have 30 to 40 states voting yes on the commercial roofing contest in 2023-24. It's my hope that we have at least a dozen next year. This is kind of our jumping off year. We had our soft open last year. We've had great support every step of the way, and we've had success on every single turning point between last June, for the last year's SkillsUSA contest, and this coming one. So if we continue that streak, the sky's the limit. Maybe one day we're going to have 200 kids potentially registering for this national contest. And just imagine the kind of jobs that those kids will be getting.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: This is it. This is where we're at, and we needed to be here. So John, great job. Thank you so much for everything you're doing. We are so excited to be with you. And on June 20th through the 22nd, going to say that again, Atlanta, Georgia, you can get all this information. If you want to learn more about SkillsUSA, just Google it. SkillsUSA, it comes right up, and you can find all the information.

But it's also, you can find information on the nrca.net website, and you can find, of course, all kinds of information on Roofer's Coffee Shop. We have it on the NRCA directory, and we are constantly going to be writing articles and doing updates. Plus, coming live from YouTube. So John, we're got this covered, I think.

John Esbenshade: Oh yeah, it's going to be nice and easy. The next step is getting these kids through SkillsUSA, and then they have their first job as installer, but then we want to set them up for that promotion. What is that promotion going to be like? What are the career options that are going to be available? Because just imagine how much better any salesperson or foreman or superintendent will be, because they learned how to do this when they were 16. It's really an exciting place to be. And I'm looking forward to Atlanta, but I'm also looking forward to that week being over, because I have been living this stuff for almost two years now, and I'm ready to take a break.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: There you go. 4th of July week. Yeah, we live for that. I do want to say to all the contractors who are listening to this out there, we have podcasts with Sherry Miles, who came out last year. You can go check that out. This is something that is amazing for your business. So if you can get involved in your local CTE school, you are able to recruit as they graduate to be a part of that. But it takes time and effort, and there's nobody better than John Esbanshade, who can connect you with other contractors who are doing this, can give you the tools and the information you need to make this happen for your company. And I have to tell you, we're hearing from contractors all over who are like, "We're in." So, 12 in 2024, I don't think it's going to be a problem, John. We're going to make this happen.

John Esbenshade: I hope not. Can I plug my podcast?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Please.

John Esbenshade: So a lot of the stuff that I'm doing and talking about, I have talked about on a podcast that I do just for NRCA. It's called Growing America's Roofing Workforce. We've only got four episodes in the can. They're going to come out once a month. I am simply not a media maven the same way that Heidi is. But there might be a couple of things in there that might help you and your business, and help address the workforce shortage as it pertains specifically to you, contractor, around the country. So thanks a lot for that opportunity.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it. Hey, you can find that podcast on nrca.net. We'll also have that podcast on Roofer's Coffee Shop. I was actually on one of your Workforce Wednesdays last year, and so it's great stuff. This is where you can get all the information, what everybody's been asking for, John's got it all. And we basically take everything he does and put it on Roofer's Coffee Shop, because we know how important it is for everybody out there. So, okay.

John Esbenshade: Well, sounds good, Heidi. I was hoping that I could schedule you for an upcoming podcast later this year. We turned those Workforce Wednesday webinars into podcasts this year. And well, you say that you copy my stuff, but I am definitely copying your stuff, too. So, Mutual Admiration Society, I guess.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I tell you what, I can't wait to be on your podcast. That'll be great. We'll do a crossover. We can talk about what happened at SkillsUSA, and everybody. Yeah, it's just going to be so great. So again, John, thank you. Thank you so much for being on the show today.

John Esbenshade: It's my pleasure, Heidi. I'll see you next month.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: See you next month. And for everybody listening, this is the staff, man, right here. This is what you want to do to help recruitment in your company. This is a long-term play. You can get all that information, as we said, nrca.net. Look up SkillsUSA. And of course, come to Roofer's Coffee Shop under NRCA. Look for this. We're going to be broadcasting. We want to have all of you on there to see how cool it is.

I also want to thank all of you for listening, because it's you that make this fun to do the podcast every day. And you can find all the podcasts on the read list and watch and navigation under podcast on Roofing Road Trips, or on your favorite podcast channel. Be sure to subscribe and hit those notifications, because you don't want to miss a single episode. And we will be seeing you next time on Roofing Road Trips.

Speaker 1: Make sure to subscribe to our channel and leave a review. Thanks for listening. This has been Roofing Road Trips with Heidi, from the rooferscoffeeshop.com.