546,000 additional workers needed to meet demand in 2023, based on 2022 data. ABC member employees build the places where Americans live, learn, work, heal and play.

ABC's Annual Impact:

  • $1.6 Billion invested by ABC members in workforce development
  • 1.3 Million course attendees

Many Successful Career Pathways

2022 Craft Instructor of the Year - Larry Harris

2022 ABC Craft Professional of the Year - Adam Haywood

2022 ABC Young Professional of the Year - Luke Perry


Fox Business: Brady Woodel, HVAC service apprentice, chose trade school over a four-year college degree

At Associated Builders and Contractors, we believe in building people through the merit shop philosophy: that projects and personal advancement should be awarded based on performance, skill and achievement. ABC has been setting the standard for safety, quality and integrity in the construction industry since 1950.

Learn more about ABC

800 Programs

68 ABC Chapters

Nationwide

Building America

  • ABC, its 68 chapters and its 22,000+ members are doing their part to educate craft and management professionals using innovative and flexible learning models like just-in-time task training, competency-based progression, work-based learning and government registered apprenticeships to build a safe, skilled and productive workforce.

    Policymakers must commit an all-of-the-above strategy for workforce development where workers and employers have the freedom to choose the best way to provide value and build America.

    More about
    Building America

Workforce Development

  • ABC member companies use flexible, competency-based and market-driven education methodologies to build a construction workforce that is safe, skilled and productive. This all-of-the-above approach to workforce development has produced a network of ABC chapters and affiliates across the country that offer more than 800 apprenticeship, craft, safety and management education programs—including more than 300 government-registered apprenticeship programs across 20 different occupations—to build the people who build America.

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    workforce development

Best of the Best

  • The ABC Construction Management Competition is a hallmark competition that promotes careers in construction management. This competition gives the nation’s top construction management students a glimpse into the real world of construction, as well as an opportunity to showcase their talents.

    Read more
    about CMC

  • The National Craft Championships draw some of the nation's most talented craft apprentices and journeymen to showcase their skills and compete on a national level, highlighting the important role that skilled trades education plays in the construction industry.

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    about NCC

Education

  • Our flexible, affordable craft and safety education leads to industry-recognized, national credentials for today’s leading construction positions. Together, we help individuals pursue meaningful careers that advance their potential and build strong communities.

    Learn more about
    skilled trades

  • Founded in 1991 by ABC and leading contractors, NCCER is the industry’s source for craft education, assessment and certification. Today, NCCER develops standardized curricula and industry-recognized, portable credentials for more than 70 crafts that have been used in all 50 states and in 20 countries.

    Learn more about
    industry-recognized credentials

  • The ABC National Student Chapter Network connects local ABC chapters to colleges and universities with construction management programs with the ultimate goal of building the construction management pipeline and mentoring future leaders of the industry.

    Learn more about
    student chapters

Diversity

  • At Associated Builders and Contractors, we believe that career opportunities in this nation should be created and made available to all people.
    We believe in creating—and championing—conditions where individuals and organizations are limited only by their own potential and desire.

    This is the driving force behind the merit shop philosophy and ABC’s inclusion, diversity and equity initiatives.

    With the founding principles of free enterprise and open competition as their foundation, ABC’s IDE initiatives are focused on bettering the individual, the industry and the nation. ABC values inclusion, diversity and equity as an empowering competitive advantage.

    Diversity Resources

Safety

  • ABC members work to establish a culture that is passionate in the belief that all accidents are preventable and train the workforce to that culture throughout their careers. Member firms at the highest level of performance in ABC’s STEP Safety Management System are nearly seven times safer than the industry average.

    Read more about
    ABC's safety performance

Veterans

  • The HIRE Vets Medallion Program is an employer recognition program administered by the Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS). Through the program, VETS accepts voluntary applications from employers for the HIRE Vets Medallion Award beginning on January 31 of each calendar year. The Award recognizes employers who hire and retain veterans, including their efforts to establish employee development programs and veteran specific benefits to improve retention.

    Detailed information about how to gain eligibility can be found at HIREVets.gov. An overall summary of the program follows.

    HIRE Vets Medallion Program

  • More than half of ABC member contractors are actively recruiting active military personnel and veterans. Service men and women will be able to translate their skills into high-wage construction careers through connections to GI Bill education benefits, alignment with military training that fast-tracks qualifying for NCCER credentials, free online courses and more.

    Veteran
    opportunities

  • ABC’s Veteran Resource Group plays a vital role in articulating, promoting and supporting the needs and goals of veterans.

    Veteran Diversity Resource Group