New construction school aims to engage disadvantaged workforce

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With the Lehigh Valley continuing to have a construction boom, especially in the health care area, a group is working to do more to ensure that minority and disadvantaged communities are getting a part of that work by helping to give them the skills and connections they need.

On Friday, the Watson-Batts School of Construction launched its first cohort of classes in partnership with St. Luke’s University Health Network.

The program, funded by the Watson Organization,  represents a  tri-sector partnership involving the private sector, nonprofit sector, and government, working collaboratively with the community to improve workforce development and foster economic development.

This initiative is specifically designed to harness the significant growth within the Lehigh Valley, particularly in the commercial construction sectors of medical and educational buildings, said Hasshan Batts, one of the founders of the program.

“The School is designed to help small local contractors and youth by hiring from the community they are in,” Batts said. “There are billions of dollars of development going on here and people in disadvantaged communities aren’t seeing any of that.”

The program aims to develop a pipeline of qualified minority contractors and subcontractors who can competitively bid and secure local contracts, thereby addressing the financial disparities that have historically affected these communities.

“We’re going to skill them up and help them meet with other contractors and get qualified so they can get more work than they did before,” said co-founder Ivan Watson.

Classes are being held on the Sacred Heart campus of St. Luke’s University Health Network, the health network is a major sponsor of the program, which is starting with 15 students enrolled in an eight-week class.

“St. Luke’s Sacred Heart is a large anchor institution in Allentown, and it has stepped up to invest in space and to provide jobs that are students can work on,” Batts said. “When you hire a minority construction firm, you’re hiring minority sub-contractors and workers. This gets jobs going to this community.”

 One of the challenges, according to Watson, is that the industry has had difficulty in finding qualified people in that community because of a lack of training and experience.

“This program will help them team up with those with more experience so they can guide them through the path to a successful job.