The following was originally published on the NCCER blog Breaking Ground.  Reprinted with permission.

There’s no better time to work in the construction industry than now.  With a growing skilled workforce shortage, salaries remain high and career opportunities are plentiful.  Earlier this year, NCCER released its annual Construction Craft Salary Survey, which lists the average annual salaries of craft professionals from industrial and commercial construction firms across the country.

For as high as these salaries are, the reality is that what skilled craft professionals earn is typically far greater.  The salaries listed in NCCER’s survey are average base salaries, not including overtime, per diem, bonuses or other incentives.   [node:read-more:link]

In a recent post, I shared some video coverage from the Construction Careers Expo, where Houston-area high-school students heard from contractors and owners who volunteered their time and equipment that day to expose the students to several craft professions.  The annual event was sponsored by the Associated Builders and Contractors of Greater Houston (ABC) and the Construction and Maintenance Education Foundation (CMEF).

Richard Bolt is a Pipefitting Instructor, Rigging Instructor, and Performance Evaluator at (CMEF).  He is certified to train in several other areas as well.  Before he came to CMEF, he worked as a journeyman pipefitter with over 20 years of experience in the field.  He told me that CMEF offers evaluations of trainees in pipefitting.  At the Careers Expo that day the students were allowed to work on one of the mockups from the CMEF lab which is used to evaluate prospective journeyman pipefitters.  Bolt said that what the students were experiencing that day was “a snapshot of what an industrial pipefitter does on the job.”   [node:read-more:link]