Lino Lakes (June 30, 2022) – The LiUNA Laborers Training Center in Lino Lakes recently added a new building to its facility. The new building will offer more classroom space as well as offer new types of training not offered before.
The Laborers Training Center got a huge upgrade to their 44,000-square-foot space, the facility added a new building next to their three 6,000-square-feet training bays. The new facility offers more classrooms and spaces to train as well as adding new types of certifications to their repertoire.
In the past the Laborers Training Center had to turn down some of its potential students because classes would often fill up, but with the new addition the program will seek to enroll more potential students. The addition of the space will also offer students a chances to get new certifications that were not offered before, instructors will also begin to move into more digital-type teachings with emphasis on moving away from paper and into using tablets or iPads for work.
“In the fall we average about 200 students in the building. Now that we’ve added more to the building I hope we can increase attendance by 10-15 percent. Now that we have more space that’s going to allow us to bring in more people. In the past we’ve had to tell some of our students that we are full here. Now that we have more space, any of our members can come in here and get a class,” said Dean Mills, Director of Training at LTC.
Getting new students in the program has been a problem, the average age for laborers is high and getting younger people involved has a been a challenge for the training center. The LiUNA LTC staff has begun reaching out to high schools and have been finding alternative ways to find students.
“As we look into the future, a lot of our industries are aging out. The average age for laborers is around 47 years old. We need that new generation. One thing that we are doing here is we have increased our apprenticeship staff and outreach people,” said Dean Mills.
According to a report done by Associated Builders and Contractors, the need for laborers is facing a huge workforce shortage. The industry will need to fill over 650,000 jobs in the coming years, it is expected that their will be 1.2 million construction workers leaving the industry but 1.3 million replacements will fill those roles as people change over to the construction industry.
With the average age of construction workers being high, it is no surprise that many retired during the pandemic. To account for these changes many industries are building facilities that will be able to account for changes like these in the future and LTC is no different.
“When we were dealing with COVID-19 issues we really had to restrict how many students we actually had. This building gives us several opportunities to expand our numbers in any situation. The thought process was to look forward and not focus on what we need today but 30-40 years down the line,” said Dean Mills.
