Career resources for students, their family members, faculty and professionals
A shortage of skilled labor exists across the country and North Carolina’s booming construction market is not immune to it. Workers are needed to help our industry companies design, build, repair and maintain high performance homes and buildings.
NCBPA works with our members and partners to develop new resources to help students, their family members, faculty and industry professionals find jobs and careers in North Carolina’s building performance industry.
NEW FOR 2021: NCBPA is thrilled to share news that a new national, online and interactive Green Buildings Career Map was recently launched to share job and career opportunities in the Building Performance, Energy Efficiency and Green Building industry with students, their families, faculty and existing industry professionals. NCBPA has long advocated for such a national resource and welcomes it’s release.
Check out the new resource at http://www.greenbuildingscareermap.org/.
Click here to view our new brochure for Career Opportunities in Building Performance!



National Job Shortage for Skilled Workers
There’s a well-known and long-lasting national shortage of skilled workers that makes “joining the trades” or putting a college education to use in an industry like building performance more valuable than ever. Don’t believe us? Click here to learn what TV host Mike Rowe thinks about the problem facing America’s economy. Learn more about the national job shortage and what’s being done to address it from these resources:
- Center for Energy Workforce Development
- National Association of Home Builders
- Forbes: Why we desperately need to bring back vocational training in schools (March, 2018)
- WSJ: Why an Honors Student Wants to Skip College and Go to Trade School (March 2018)
- WUNC: There’s a Construction Boom in North Carolina. But There Aren’t Enough Skilled Workers (March 2018)
Watch this short video on “exploring the trades” that highlights job opportunities that don’t require a four-year degree program.
Addressing the Skilled Worker Shortage in North Carolina
What’s happening in North Carolina to address this issue in our state?
- Click here to learn about a $1M grant program in Raleigh that’s training low-income youth for construction jobs.
- Click here to learn about Duke Energy’s $2.7M grant program for workforce development.
- Click here to learn about Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas’ community college grant program.
- Click here for a news article on a workforce development center created in 2017.
- Click here to learn about the NCWorks Commission that is tasked with ensuring that North Carolina has an innovative and effective workforce system.
- Click here for a short sample of our presentation to students on career opportunities in our industry.
NCBPA’s Workforce Development Resources
To directly address these vital needs, NCBPA provides:
- Free membership in the association for students and faculty. Gain access to our weekly e-newsletter, discounts to industry conferences and events, free webinars, product discounts and much more. Click here to join NCBPA for free.
- Our member job postings are sent directly to many community colleges, technical college and university programs across the state. Post your job with us to have it advertised across the state to students and more than 9,000 industry professionals.
- We connect high school students, college students and industry professionals seeking employment in our industry through the Job Seekers page on our website. Visit this page to see the talented students and industry professionals seeking internships, co-op positions, part-time and full-time jobs.
- Presentations to high school, college and university students describing industry job and career opportunities. Contact us to schedule a presentation!
Creating New Resources
To support lasting careers for professionals working in our industry, NCBPA:
- Regularly surveys industry professionals including company owners and operators to learn about changing hiring and employment trends in our industry. This valuable data helps us learn what certification and training programs need support, what salaries and benefits are trending so that we can inform interested students, and how educational curricula in place at high schools, colleges and universities across the state can be fine-tuned to address changing needs in our current and future business environment.
- Offers a variety of continuing education opportunities through industry conferences, workshops, networking events, online webinars and research. Visit our Events Calendar for a listing of upcoming events.
- Encourages member professionals to participate in Committees with NCBPA staff and other industry professionals to help resolve important industry issues and form new ideas and opportunities that push our industry forward.
- Join NCBPA’s newest workforce development initiative focused on developing our industry’s talent and leadership pipeline! Industry professionals young in age or experience will have plenty of opportunities to learn, network and contribute to industry growth in 2019! Be on the lookout for networking events, working group meetings and more! Let us know you’re interested by emailing us at Info@BuildingNC.org or calling us at 919-841-6207.
Colleges and Universities
NCBPA is creating new connections with educational programs across the state in 2019. Currently, we work with the institutions listed below. Know of another one that we should reach out to? Contact us to help make a connection!
- Appalachian State University
- Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College
- Cape Fear Community College
- Central Carolina Community College
- Charlotte Piedmont Community College
- Duke University
- Durham Tech
- Guilford Technical Community College
- Lenoir-Rhyne University
- North Carolina A&T University
- North Carolina State University
- University of North Carolina at Asheville
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Wake Tech Community College
- Western Carolina University
Certification and Credentialing Programs
Need some help determining which certification and credentialing program is the best fit for you? Here’s some helpful information to get you started:
- Visit HomeEnergyNC.org to view a listing of popular credential programs.
- Commercial and industrial programs – coming soon.
- Interested in becoming a Home Energy Rater? Click here to visit the website for RESNET, the national certification organization for Home Energy Raters.
- Interested in becoming an Energy Auditor or Home Performance Contractor? Click here to visit the website for the Building Performance Institute, the national certification organization for building performance.
- Click here to learn more about residential certification and credentialing programs from Home Performance Coalition and Building Performance Institute.
Get Involved in Developing Our Workforce
What can you do to support these initiatives? A lot! Here’s just some of the ways that you and your company can support workforce development in our state.
- Sponsor our workforce development efforts! These important activities are funded by our membership dues and will only get better with sponsorship from industry companies and stakeholders. Contact us to discuss sponsorship opportunities for our programs, events and more. For 2019, we’re actively seeking sponsorship for:
- “Careers in North Carolina Building Performance” large poster that can be places in high school, college and university classrooms and labs.
- Curriculum development funding for high performance residential and commercial construction.
- Advocacy and lobbying funds to support our efforts to increase state and federal funding for workforce training programs.
- Post your jobs on our Job Board to gain access to more than 9,000 industry professionals and students across the state, region and nation!
- View our Job Seekers page to see the talented students and industry professionals seeking internships, co-op positions, part-time and full-time jobs in our industry!
- Host students at your job sites – during or after work hours – to show them what our industry professionals are working on in North Carolina’s high performance homes and buildings.
- Sponsor an intern or co-op during the school year or summer. Contact us to get started!
- Schedule a video interview with us at your office or a job site to share your insights with our industry’s future workforce. Visit our Member Stories page for examples of these interviews. Contact us to get started!
- Present your company’s job opportunities to students in their classrooms, clubs and at career fairs with colleges and universities across the state. Visit our Events Calendar to see where we’re presenting and let’s do it together! Or, visit our Industry Events Calendar to view career fairs being held across the state.
- Become a part-time instructor for high school and college programs in your local area! Many community college programs rely on working and retired industry professionals to teach their students on a part-time basis. Some of these programs pay for these roles as well. Contact us or your local community college to get involved.
- Provide products, materials, tools and other resources to high school, college and university programs across the state to support classroom education and real world job training. See the list below for needed donations and sponsorship.
- Participate on an Advisory Board for educational programs in your local community. Contact your local program for more information.
Donate or sponsor to schools, colleges and universities
NCBPA is working with high schools, colleges and universities across the state to raise sponsorship funds and help these schools obtain donated or discounted products, materials, tools and other resources to support their classroom education and hands-on training programs. Here’s a list of items that North Carolina’s educators need to train our future workforce. Contact us to establish a donation or sponsorship for these and other items!
Check out this video tour from April 2019 with John Wojchiechowski to see the Sustainability Technologies lab at Cape Fear Community College! It’s a great example of the types of products, materials and mock-ups that we want ALL our NC colleges and universities to have!
- High Performance Tiny House on Wheels: Many educational programs use hands-on wall and roof systems, mechanical equipment and more to demonstrate techniques and teach best practices. What better way than doing so on a tiny house on wheels? NCBPA is leading efforts to establish a high performance tiny house on wheels that can be shared by community colleges and universities across the state throughout the year. This plan offers programs one month of time with the tiny home to show cut-outs of wall systems, electrical systems and much more. Instead of each program having to build or buy their own, this one will be shared throughout the year. Contact us to discuss this tremendous learning opportunity!
- Mechanical Equipment: Donate working heat pumps, furnaces, ventilation equipment and more to aid students in learning how to install, repair and maintain modern equipment being used in homes and buildings across the state.
- Job Materials: Donate caulking, lumber, hardware and much more to assist students in putting their classroom training into action through hands-on builds and repairs.
- Testing Equipment and Tools: Donations are needed for high performance home and building testing equipment including blower doors, infrared cameras and much more. Product manufacturers looking for R&D support can even provide products and tools to programs for students to test them out, providing valuable feedback to help make better products.
Additional Resources
- Visit Everblue Training’s website for upcoming BPI, HERS, LEED and other training workshops.
- Click here to view industry and association events on our Calendar.
- Visit HomeEnergyNC.org for more information on industry careers.
- Click here for a helpful article on modern HVAC training topics.
- Visit the mikeroweWORKSFoundation for information on national scholarship programs
- Empowering Employees: The Key to Achieving Environmental Sustainability Goals
- Resources for women in construction
- Learn about career opportunities in the trades through Generation T
- Click here for an article on sustainability career options you may not be aware about