KEYNOTE SPEAKER Aaron Witt: DEVELOPING THE WORKFORCE THE REALITY OF THE DIRT WORLD’S WORKFORCE The National Center for Construction Education & Research (NCCER) estimates 41% of the current construction workforce will retire by 2031.3 It takes eight to 12 years to fully train someone as a construction craft professional, so it’ll be nearly a decade before new hires reach the same skill level as those retirees.4 That — coupled with the current workforce shortage — paints a pretty ugly picture for the Dirt World’s future. But that future isn’t acceptable. The Dirt World makes everything society needs to function; we cannot The workforce is the Dirt World’s biggest problem today. From September to December 2021, 789,000 construction workers quit their jobs.1 In 2022, the industry faced a shortage of 650,000 workers.2 Who’s going to step into those roles? The people you develop today will be your workforce tomorrow. We’ll explore the ways you can develop your workforce. But first, let’s look at the current situation. survive without it. “We can't fail because this industry is essential. Our communities, our future generations, depend on us to figure this out,” says Aaron Witt, CEO of BuildWitt. So, Dirt World companies must fix the workforce problem — and they must change to do it. "We cannot continue the status quo. What we’re doing is clearly not working; we need to go beyond what we’ve done up to this point,” Aaron explains. “No one’s coming to save us. We’ve got to save ourselves here.” 26
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