Associated General Contractors of St. Louis > Career Development

ACCESS, the Association for Construction Careers Education and Support in St. Louis, is a structural/organizational model that formalizes collaboration, eliminates duplication of services, and provides a coordinated continuum of construction careers and diversity development programs.

For more information on ACCESS, visit www.access-construction-metrostl.com or call Terry Hampton at (314) 863-8889. ACCESS is located at 700 Rosedale, Suite 1611 in St. Louis, MO 63112.

BuildUP! Kit.jpg Giving students a positive exposure to the construction industry at an early age is the goal of Build Up!, a program jointly developed by the AGC of America and Scholastic, Inc. Through hands-on activities, team projects, and individual work, fifth-grade students meet academic requirements in math, science, history and the language arts while learning about the construction industry. A single kit provides enough instructional materials for 30 students, including a workbook, a video on bridges and a book on building skyscrapers. Hands-on activities encourage students to work in teams to build the strongest bridge and tallest skyscraper using simple materials, such as cardboard and popsicle sticks. Each kit contains more than 20 hours of in-classroom instruction, broken down into smaller units, which give users flexibility in choosing how much of each kit to use at a given time.

Partnerships with the Magic House and Urban Futures enabled AGC of St. Louis to introduce the Build Up! program to 911 teachers and over 40,000 students in the St. Louis area. AGC of St. Louis continues to support those schools participating in the program with extra supplies and mentor visits when requests are received.

For additional information contact Joanne Engel at jengel@stl-cts.org or (314) 644-1525 ext. 225.

The Construction Careers Center is sponsored by the AGC of St. Louis and the St. Louis Board of Education. Our members have given their time, expertise and financial resources to make it a school where students can acquire the knowledge and skills for a productive life in our community through well-rounded academics, a broad exposure to the construction industry and technical information for a specific profession.

The school operates an eleven-month program. The focus is hands-on skills, and students can pursue either a construction apprenticeship or college path. The building is a remodeled city school located at 1224 Grattan just east of Lafayette Square and west of Soulard, an area of substantial residential and commercial development.

Click here to view a video on the CCC.

Click here to view the 2007-2008 CCC Annual Report.

Go! is a free, online magazine for teens and young adults that explores the world of transportation and the careers they can find there. Click here to view online magazine.

St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment (SLATE) helps with employment and training needs, whether you are a business or a job seeker. Click here to visit their website.

The St. Louis Stempel Plan is a great learning opportunity for emerging firms in the construction industry. The Stempel Plan pairs an emerging company as a protégé with executives from two established AGC members who serve as mentors to the protégé.

The mentors offer assistance in the following areas: estimating, project management, cash flow, banking, bonding, insurance, marketing and other areas where the protégé needs help. The mentor-protégé teams meet monthly. The mentors are also available for consultation between meetings. An Advisory Board of construction business specialists is also available to protégés.

This is a great opportunity, but it needs new protégés in the program. Firms that have been in business for at least three years and are certified as MBE or WBE are eligible. The Stempel Plan is a partnership between the AGC of St. Louis and St. Louis Minority Business Council.

Any firm interested should contact Karen Carson at the Contractor Assistance Program (CAP) at (314) 645-3398 or cap@stlouismissouri.org; Kathy Givens at the AGC of St. Louis at (314) 781-2356 or kgivens@agcstl.org.

The Vocational Information Center provides a wealth of information on vocational and technical careers, the skills employers really want and trade schools. Click here to enter the Vocational Information Center.

This federally funded project connects high school students with apprenticeship and training programs and thereby helps develop a well trained workforce for the industry. The project is administered by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in partnership with the St. Louis Community College.