Roofing Academy Schools New Commercial Roofers

By Evelyn Witterholt. 

This Academy is making waves in the industry by recruiting and educating future roofing contractors. 

The roofing industry has been facing labor shortages for the past few years. Industry experts say that the shortage has led to roofers losing 15,000-20,000 jobs per every one million. One of the best ways to fix these labor shortages is by recruiting new roofers, and every new roofer needs proper training. That’s why the GAF Roofing Academy is working hard to recruit and train new roofers to help expand our industry. 

Recently, Graham Roofing hosted a three-day commercial roofing training course at their company headquarters in West Point, Mississippi. There, eight students gained valuable knowledge about how to safely and effectively install a commercial roof. They also earned a $250 stipend for attending and will receive a training course from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), courtesy of GAF.  

What’s even better is that they will be interviewed by Graham Roofing for a potential job with their company. Christee Holbrook, Graham Roofing’s CEO and president, helped set up this class because her company had gone from 55 roofers to 42 in the past three years. She was particularly happy to see women taking the class as she believes the construction industry needs more women in the workforce. 

“Obviously, we need more diversity in our workforce because we need more workers,” Christee told The Dispatch. “It’s proven that women working in construction and roofing are very beneficial because women can multitask better than men and are more organized. There’s a lot of pros for women to be in construction.” 

On the last day of the class, the students installed a mock roof to demonstrate their new commercial roofing skills. Jay McCord, a GAF roofing instructor, said that this lesson was a great way for students to get hands-on roofing crew experience.  

Christee and Jay have also discussed bringing their lessons to other places, such as prisons. “I’ve talked to (McCord) about doing some more, possibly going into some prisons because they do that also,” Christee said. “This is the stuff we look for — to partner with people on how to recruit into our industry.” 

Photo credit: The Dispatch