The Roofing Alliance Sponsors a College Course Focused on Roofing

Roofing contractors often lament that the industry’s labor shortage is caused by an emphasis on four-year college degree programs instead of the trades, but now a university offers roofing as part of its curriculum!

This two-phase initiative aims to bring more students into the roofing industry with a nine-credit roofing certificate program. Thanks to the Roofing Alliance, the foundation of the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA), students at Clemson University in South Carolina completed a three-credit college course entirely dedicated to roofing, and its success could lead to other schools adopting the program.

A total of 21 construction science and management students signed up for the university’s roofing course in January, where they learned about everything from management and materials to career opportunities. Dr. Dhaval Gajjar, an assistant professor, designed and instructed the course with the assistance of industry professionals who also served as guest speakers.

He said, “as many contractors are aware, one of the key issues affecting the industry is the workforce. Both on the crew and management sides. It’s compounded further by the fact that even when students study construction, roofing is hardly discussed.”

Gajjar isn’t an academic who merely took up construction as a different avenue of study. He earned his doctorate in construction management from Arizona State University in 2016, with both his master’s thesis and dissertation topics focusing on roofing. Following graduation, he worked in the industry for five years, including as a project manager for TEPCON Construction.

He became an assistant professor in July 2018 at Clemson as part of its construction science and management program. He said what drove him to the roofing industry was the simple fact that every building needs a roof.

“A roof is an important envelope for any building because when it’s working great, it’s great, but when it’s not working great, it’s not just a roofing system that needs replacement. It’s everything within or beneath it,” he said.

The course is just one of the items that has emerged from the Roofing Alliance’s Construction Management Schools Initiative Committee. Formed in 2013 along with multiple construction management universities, the long-term goal is to expose students and faculty to the roofing industry by enhancing their overall roofing knowledge.

Bennett Judson, the Alliance’s executive director, said the idea for the roofing college class started when the Alliance joined the American Council for Construction Education (ACEE) and encouraged faculty members to submit funding requests for studies benefiting the industry. After meeting with Alliance officials, Gajjar presented a funding request in April 2019 to develop and implement the college course.

“There is more awareness within our industry with people saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got to step up, we’ve got to find alternative resources,’ and we’re gaining more exposure with the general public,” Judson said. “We’re creating more of that awareness, and now the next step was looking at the curriculum.”

More than 80 Roofing Alliance members have committed to making the program a success through product donations, guest lecturing and content donations. About 20 of them volunteered to appear in person during the semester.

“All the students came back with amazing reviews, saying how much they learned about the roofing industry, specifically they did not know that roofing could be such an in-depth field,” he said. “They were amazed to see all the leadership, the project management … they didn’t realize how much roofing is involved in the construction process.”

The goal is to have a university level nine-credit, three-course roofing program by the summer of 2022. In addition to earning nine credits, students who complete the course will receive a certificate demonstrating their knowledge and skills.

“When the students graduate from this four-year degree program, they have a construction management bachelor’s, but at the same time they have an official certificate in roofing as well when they go into the industry,” Gajjar said.

Should the Alliance succeed in implementing this program, they don’t intend on keeping it solely at Clemson. The ultimate goal is to have industry professionals partner with construction management and technical universities around the nation to implement the nine-credit program in their curriculum.

Gajjar and Judson encourage roofing professionals interested in the college course to contact them at dgajjar@clemson.edu and bjudson@nrca.net.

To read more, go to the original article HERE.