Workforce Development Team Continues Career Development Momentum

VSI Supports Transitioning Active Service Members

The Vinyl Siding Institute (VSI) is proud to share that its Workforce Development team recently met with 25 transitioning active service members at the Fort Campbell, KY Military and Veteran Services Career Center.

The Home Builder Institute’s (HBI) Military and Veteran Services Career Center, supported by the Home Depot Foundation, allows transitioning service members to participate in a 12-week skilled trades program, that includes residential and new construction carpentry and electrical skilled construction trades curriculum through a combination of academic learning and hands-on experience.

During the meet-up, VSI introduced the group to VSI's new Pathway to Success Career Development Program, which consists of five tiers of installation education, where individuals can train today and start tomorrow.

Penn College Students Certified as Vinyl Siding Installers

More great news! Twenty-nine construction students at Pennsylvania College of Technology have earned Certified Installer status from the Vinyl Siding Institute, the first to receive the value-added credential under the institution’s fledgling partnership with the trade association.

“This will be another tool in your toolbox,” Rob Balfanz, VSI’s Director of Workforce Development, told the inaugural class at a Sept. 2 ceremony in the Student & Administrative Services Center. “You’re not only building your portfolio, you’re also building your future.”

The certification, which lasts five years, reflects skills and standards taught in Penn College’s Weather Resistant Barriers and Finishes course.

“There are so many opportunities – an almost endless demand – in construction across North America,” Balfanz told students. Sadly, he said, many of those opportunities exist in storm-hammered areas of the country, “but the No. 1 challenge we face in installation is that we simply don’t have enough skilled labor. You’ve all taken a major step by going to school and becoming educated.”

Balfanz additionally briefed the students on the institute’s “Ladder to Success” program for aspiring professionals, noting that certification already gives them an edge over entry-level installer trainees. He also provided a tutorial on industry resources now available to them.