Education
The Concrete Career Academy (a joint effort between Kentucky Concrete Association, Carolinas Ready Mixed Concrete Association and Tennessee Concrete Association) grew out of TCA’s early efforts to establish an online learning site focused on the concrete industry. The four-state partnership was initiated in 2018 and officially launched in 2019. Our first course is called the Verified Operator, and students who successfully complete the online course - and an in-person written final exam - will earn a digital badge. The badge recognizes the learner’s efforts and can be used by the learner to strengthen their professional resume. The badges also give employers a great way to validate the experience level and skills of prospective employees using an industry-based rather than a company-specific standard. There are many options for putting educational content ‘on-line’ but far fewer options for creating content that is both engaging and accessible for front-line employees like mixer operators. To that end, we partnered with the Tennessee Board of Regents to take our content and put it into a format that gives online learners the best chance of long-term success.
With permission from NRMCA, we used the NRMCA Mixer Truck Drivers Manual as the reading textbook for the Verified Operator course. This helps take advantage of existing resources and provides a standardized curriculum specific to the ready mixed concrete industry.
The credentials earned on the platform will take the form of live digital badges that enable the badge earners to share their credentials on social media platforms or as part of their email signatures. Anyone curious about the badges can click on the credential and see what requirements had to be met in order for the badge to be earned. Digital badges can become the foundation of a personal professional resume for ready-mix operators and other front-line workers in the concrete construction industry. This ability to document knowledge and skills earned through experience and education is key to increasing pride for our current and future workforce, as well as a critical factor in our industry’s ability to retain talent in a very competitive environment.
Alan Sparkman is serving on the NRMCA Workforce Development Committee (WDC) and is leading one of the task groups (Partnering with Schools) developed by the committee. Director Sparkman attended the inaugural meeting for the new WDC in Kansas City in 2018 and continues to serve on the committee.
Industry Certifications
TCA is the Local Sponsoring Group for all of Tennessee for both NRMCA and ACI. TCA maintains a very active certification calendar (click to visit) that includes over a dozen different ACI certifications plus the NRMCA Certified Concrete Sales Professional, Volumetric Mixer Operator Certification (first offered in 2019 and now required by TDOT for volumetric concrete production on state projects), and the NRMCA Pervious Concrete Installer. Other NRMCA certifications are offered as needed by TCA in Tennessee. In 2019, TCA conducted over 70 certification sessions across the state, with over 700 people sitting for certification exams.
Connecting Concrete Certifications to Workforce Development
TCA partnered with the Tennessee Department of Transportation and other construction related organizations to provide training to inmates preparing to re-enter life after incarceration. TCA’s Executive Director Alan Sparkman taught two sessions (each about 1 week) on concrete finishing, using the ACI Flatwork Finisher material to provide curriculum for the class, including the administration of the written exam at the end of the class. These classes (15 people in each class in 2019) were conducted inside the prison facility. TCA arranged for a tour of the TCA Campus and a tour of an operating concrete batch plant for the 2nd class to help students better connect their classroom learning with real world concrete projects. Nearly all of these 30 individuals were hired by construction companies doing work in Tennessee shortly after their completion of the course.
Also related to TCA’s overall efforts in the workforce space, we launched an online Career Center focused on the concrete industry in 2018. A link to the TCA Career Center is included here on the right. TCA members can post jobs at discounted rates and concrete industry personnel can post resumes here to stay in touch with the latest opportunities in the concrete industry in Tennessee and beyond.
