In the construction industry, the success or failure of a project can depend heavily on the knowledge and proficiency of front line supervisors. These individuals are the backbone of the industry, managing teams and ensuring safety and efficiency. However, many construction foremen never receive any formal training for this vital position. Instead, they went from high performing craft professionals to foremen based on their knowledge and technical skills in the field, not their leadership abilities.
With increasing workforce shortages and high turnover rates, the time between going from craft professional to foreman can be as short as a day. Without structured training or formal support, many foremen are left in a "sink or swim" scenario, forced into a trial-and-error approach. This reactive approach leads to missed opportunities for improvement, higher turnover rates, and overall inefficiencies that delay projects and increase costs.
To bring the issue into perspective, a report by the Construction Industry Institute found nearly 70% of construction foremen reported a lack of training in critical areas such as communication and quality. Additionally, research shows that once a craft professional is promoted to foreman, that individual only stays at their job for one to two years which leaves the company without one of their best craft professionals and now without a foreman.
All of this leads to the obvious — investment in training and development for foremen not only mitigates risk on projects, it also increases employee retention by providing a clear career pathway for craft professionals. Unfortunately, even with these types of benefits, contractors cite the lack of time and resources as the primary barriers to training.
The National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) is helping to alleviate these barriers by providing a comprehensive Construction Foreman Certification Program for current and future foremen. This program is easy to implement, completely self-paced and accessible on phones, tablets or desktops. This five-course program provides training in the critical areas of leadership, communication, quality, productivity and safety.
To ensure participants are engaged and learning, it was designed by instructional designers and includes audio, text, videos, activities, reviews, and practices and checks your understanding items. Subject matter experts from across the country were included in the development and in the videos to ensure the program touches on real-world challenges that existing and future foremen do or will face on the job site every day.
The program ends with a rigorous assessment to evaluate the learner’s understanding, provide a personalized training plan and lead to the Construction Foreman Certification. This assessment is also a great tool to evaluate existing foremen and provide a report of their strengths and weaknesses, which can lead to upskilling opportunities.
Even the most experienced foremen can benefit from formal training. The complex nature of construction projects demands a wide range of skills, from safety compliance to people management. A structured and standardized training solution like NCCER’s Construction Foreman Certification Program can help fill knowledge gaps and provide a solid foundation for career advancement. To learn more, visit nccer.org/foreman.
