06 Oct Positioning Local Contractors for Charlotte’s $25 Billion Infrastructure Boom
With major regional investments on the horizon, Charlotte Works and the City of Charlotte are putting local workforce readiness front and center through the launch of Skilled to Build.
Charlotte has been rapidly expanding for years.
Look around the area and you’ll see new apartments, roads, businesses, and neighborhoods taking shape. But some of the biggest changes coming to Charlotte won’t just change what our city looks like. They could change where people work, what skills employers need, and who gets to benefit from our city’s growth.
Charlotte is preparing for more than $25 billion in transportation and transit investment, creating thousands of potential opportunities for local businesses and workers. But there’s an important question we need to ask alongside all that construction: Are our workforce and businesses ready for what’s coming?
That’s exactly what the City of Charlotte is trying to address through Skilled to Build, a new initiative focused on helping local businesses and workers prepare for the opportunities created by the region’s transportation investments.
The Workforce Behind the Construction
When we think about a major infrastructure project, it’s easy to picture the finished product: a new road, a new transit connection, or a construction project finally opening to the public. But getting to a finished product requires people.
Engineers, construction workers, project managers, administrative professionals, equipment operators, suppliers, and small business owners. The list goes on. And those jobs don’t simply appear when construction begins. Employers need people with the right skills before projects get underway.
That’s why more than 100 representatives from Charlotte’s business, workforce development, education, government, and nonprofit communities recently came together for the launch of Skilled to Build. The initiative is focused on three areas: Small Business Readiness, Mobility Workforce Readiness, and Contract Readiness.
The goal is simple: make sure Charlotte’s businesses and workers are prepared to participate in the growth happening around them.
Charlotte Employers Are Already Thinking About Skills
This need for workforce preparation isn’t specific to the construction industry. North Carolina’s latest Employer Needs Survey shows that employers continue to think carefully about what they actually need from their workers. And increasingly, they’re looking beyond a degree or a résumé.
Employers across the state say that skills like communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity will become even more important in the coming years. As technology changes and industries evolve, the specific tasks people perform may change, too. But the ability to communicate clearly, solve problems, work with others, and adapt doesn’t go out of style.
For Charlotte employers, that means building a strong workforce is about developing the skills people will need for tomorrow’s jobs.
What Charlotte’s Growth Means for Local Businesses
Charlotte’s growth creates a huge opportunity for local businesses, but taking advantage of that opportunity may require some preparation.
A small business that wants to compete for a contract connected to a major infrastructure project may need to understand how the contracting process works. An employer expecting to grow may need to start building its talent pipeline before it has dozens of positions to fill. And a skilled worker interested in a new career may need training or connections to get their foot in the door.
This is where employers, workforce organizations, education and training providers, and community partners all have an important role to play. Instead of waiting for a skills gap to become a hiring problem, we can start working together now to identify what Charlotte’s growing industries will need, and help people prepare for those opportunities.
The Opportunity Goes Beyond Construction
It’s easy to look at $25 billion in infrastructure investment and think about tools, concrete, and the tangible resources we need to build. But the real opportunity is whether a Charlotte resident can find a career because a new project created an opening. Whether a local business can grow because it was ready to compete for a contract. Whether employers can find the talent they need to keep growing.
Infrastructure can build roads and transit systems. Workforce development helps build the people and businesses that make a growing economy work.
Charlotte is going to keep growing, the question is how we make sure that growth works for the people who live and work here. With the right partnerships and preparation, we have an opportunity to do more than build Charlotte’s next generation of infrastructure. We can build its next generation of opportunity, too.
Ready to Get Your Business Involved?
Are you a local business owner or contractor looking to expand your team or compete for upcoming regional infrastructure contracts? Complete our Employer Interest Form to explore training grants, wage reimbursements, and workforce support available through Skilled to Build.
Written by: Shannon Ferko