ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Power Design, the St. Petersburg construction contractor, is putting tens of millions of dollars into its CAMP training campus as it tries to build its own supply of electricians, plumbers and mechanical workers before a skilled labor shortage gets worse.
The campus is the home base for PowerU, the company’s four-year apprenticeship program. Trainees there now work inside nine steel-frame mock job sites, each frozen at a different stage of a build, which lets them practice on realistic structures instead of only sitting through lectures. Planned additions include dorm rooms for students.
Roughly 380 apprentices are enrolled nationwide. They are paid while they learn on the company’s 350 projects and return to the St. Petersburg site for a week each quarter. Tracks include electrical, plumbing, mechanical and systems work, and applicants need a high school diploma or GED and must speak English.
Interest is growing. Power Design now gets two applicants for every available spot, and a recent signing day added 27 new apprentices. Its trade partners are required to train at CAMP before they work on company jobs. Power Design has close to 2,800 workers on its own payroll and coordinates nearly 4,000 subcontractor teams.
Company leaders say the need is national. Stephanie Morge, who leads learning and development as a company vice president, said the supply of trade workers is not keeping up with demand for any type of building, and the company aims to double its incoming apprentice class next year. An industry report projects about 1.7 million trade jobs will open each year for the next nine years.
Florida feels the squeeze more than most. No state needs more tradespeople, yet Florida ranks second-to-last in worker supply.
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