Hard Hat Heroes Expansion Provides More Construction Opportunities for Veterans

ALACHUA, Fla., Nov. 17, 2017 -- NCCER is excited to celebrate the one year anniversary of their Hard Hat Heroes Credentialing Portal this Veterans Day. NCCER salutes our veterans by providing resources to help create a seamless transition into the construction workforce. The Build Your Future (BYF) military initiative, Hard Hat Heroes, provides a way for veterans to receive NCCER credentials for the skills and training they received while in the service.

NCCER Credentialing Workshop

Hard Hat Heroes gained great momentum in 2017 by creating a military advisory council consisting of veterans and industry representatives whose focus is on recruiting, training and retaining military service members in the construction industry. The ultimate goal of this council is to recruit veterans into the construction industry and to help ensure that they have rewarding and sustainable careers through the use of resources and support of NCCER and its BYF Hard Hat Heroes initiative.

In addition, the number of alignments provided in the portal grew from 10 to 70 as a result of the collaborative efforts from the military advisory council, Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps representatives. These efforts were further highlighted by a recent workshop hosted by NCCER on Sept. 20-22, 2017. The alignments now available are 19 Army MOS codes, 36 Seabee Rates, 12 Air Force AFSCs and three Marine Corps MOS codes. Hard Hat Heroes has also released rank-based alignments for the four branches where service members are eligible to receive NCCER’s leadership credentials for the training they obtained while serving. The extensive expansion will continue as more alignments are scheduled to be released early 2018.

Along with the alignments and credentials provided by the initiative, Hard Hat Heroes works directly with NextOp, a Houston-based veterans’ advocacy group run by veterans, to provide career counseling and assistance with job placement.

It is the commitment of those involved in this effort that has made it possible. NCCER would like to recognize the members of the military council, Darren Amick of Bechtel, John Boerstler of NextOp, Jacob Guzman of KBR, Shane Hair of Day and Zimmermann, Chris Newton of Cajun Industries and David Theriot of Performance Contractors, for their hard work and dedication, along with special thanks to the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines representatives for their participation. NCCER and BYF are proud to our military members and veterans. They’ve defended America, now let’s help them build it.

To apply for credit towards NCCER credentials or view the task alignments, visit the Hard Hat Heroes portal at veterans.byf.org. Additional resources for BYF’s full military recruitment initiative are available at byf.org.

Organizations interested in partnering with Hard Hat Heroes can contact Ashleigh Potuznik at 386.518.6915 or [email protected]. For more information, visit veterans.byf.org.

About NCCER — NCCER is a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) education foundation created by the construction industry to develop standardized curriculum with portable credentials and to help address the skilled construction workforce shortage. NCCER is recognized by the industry as the training, assessment, certification and career development standard for the construction and maintenance craft professional. For more information, visit www.nccer.org or contact NCCER customer service at 888.622.3720.

About Build Your Future – Build Your Future (BYF) is NCCER’s national image enhancement and recruitment initiative for the construction industry. Its mission is to recruit the next generation of craft professionals by making career and technical education a priority in secondary schools, shifting negative public perception about careers in the construction industry and providing a path from ambition, to training, to job placement as a craft professional. BYF provides a number of resources to assist industry, education and military organizations in achieving these goals. For more information, visit www.byf.org.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a38b285b-14f2-413a-9cce-618109f21d89

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/15594547-2907-4646-99b0-84386145978f

Jennifer Wilkerson
NCCER
888.622.3720 x 6908
[email protected]