One industry, many career options

By Emma Peterson.

Introducing students to commercial roofing through the SkillsUSA competition.

Encompassing more than 400,000 individuals, SkillsUSA is the number one development organization for the trades. SkillsUSA is organized around regional, state and national contests that encourage the best from participating industry leaders, students and instructors. Included in the contests are two roofing categories — Teamworks and Commercial Roofing. The National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) describes how these categories operate, sharing, “In the Teamworks competition, teams of four build freestanding structures with asphalt shingle mockups. The Commercial Roofing competitors, following NRCA PROCertification® standards, install single-ply membranes and compete for trophies and monetary awards.”

In 2024, students from 10 different states participated in the national championships (read all about it in this article from Coffee Shops Editor Lauren White). Recently, Patrick Cochran, the owner of Red Dog’s Roofing out of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and Matt Landry, his team’s reputation manager, stopped by to talk about his work to get his state involved in SkillsUSA this year!  

Patrick sits on the NRCA’s career and technical education committee and has been working to get a roofing division of SkillsUSA established in his state for years now. Just this last fall, he was invited to present to the Skills USA Massachusetts leadership team to talk about the value of investing in roofing education. He explained that the SkillsUSA leaders really “wanted to really make sure that it's a good opportunity for students not just to get the hands-on training, but to be able to take those skills and essentially get into the workforce.”

In his presentation, Patrick not only pointed to the role of roofing as an essential business, but also as a career option beyond installation. He shared, “There’s a misconception where people feel like construction has no upward mobility, and so we talked about how getting involved with a roofing company is more than just building. You could be on distribution. You could be on the supply side and logistics. You could be in an accounting department.” Matt chimed in, sharing his experience, explaining, “I've been employed with Red Dog’s for about 2 1/2 years. I was actually a retail manager for over 30 years and have taken my specialty and love for working with people into the roofing world.”  

Beyond the incredible opportunities roofing presents for students, Patrick made sure to highlight how supportive the industry is of students and career development programs, sharing, “I showed them how the industry is willing to come together to donate time, money and materials to make this is an easy lift for schools. We just want them to put us in front of students and then we can help them with curriculum, hands-on material, tools and ultimately the financial support for whoever's going to nationals — we want them to succeed.”