Sundt Construction is one of the nation’s oldest and most respected employee-owned construction companies, known for delivering complex infrastructure and building projects while investing in the people who make them possible. Since 1890, Sundt has built a reputation for quality, innovation, and a strong culture of safety across a diverse range of markets. Learn how Sundt is using NCCER to develop skilled craft professionals, strengthen workforce training, and build the next generation of construction leaders.
How does your organization use NCCER programs and services?
- Use NCCER in so many different ways – they are an ATS and an accredited assessment center
- 7 DOL proofed apprenticeships
- Planning on starting their 8th next year
- All of them but one utilize NCCER curricula – the one they don’t use it for is the heavy equipment mechanic
- Sundt is the only company in the U.S. that has all Spanish apprenticeship in 2 areas – Pipefitting and concrete construction and they use the NCCER curricula
- When they first started, they had a huge struggle because the dialect was more Cuban style Spanish
- Sundt has worked with NCCER to receive more of a Southwest-style dialect which has been a massive hit because they have individuals who want to join apprenticeships but did not have the English skills, so this has been very helpful
- Now it has been incredibly helpful – they have around 4-5 cohorts
Which pieces of NCCER’s system does your company use?
- NCCER curricula
- NCCER Assessments
- Somewhat use our leadership training
- They do their own fundamentals of crew leadership, but have added in some things of their own
- Starting to utilize CraftPro
- Constantly use BYF Sean’s biggest tool with that is the demand map (he showcases that everywhere they go)
- Recommends that one thing that could help us by holding events where high schools can come to us that is what Sundt is doing currently
- If Sundt had the fodder or collateral to display that at each event, things could probably go differently
Why did your organization choose NCCER?
- The company that Sean was at before Sundt did a lot of training, but it was all in house
- If he received training at that company and then moved to another company, they wouldn’t know what that was
- The best thing about NCCER is the standardized curricula
- Contractors see that and want to hire people based on those credentials and curricula
- If Sundt wants to partner with high schools, if they see that they have utilized NCCER curricula, they know immediately that they can partner with them
- It really is just a no-brainer to build all things on our programs
What results or successes have you experienced?
- One of the latest success has been Sundt getting an API into their system
- Came up with this thing through a company called Bridget
- Sean was annoyed about laying off craft on one project, but hiring for the same craft on another
- One thing that was vital in that was the “baseball card” information, which would’ve been extremely painful to pull all that data
- Now, Sundt is getting the information pushed through their portal system to get everyone that has NCCER credentials in their system
- NCCER made it a lot easier for Sundt for the tracking of certifications
- Sundt believes that CraftPro is going to change in a very positive way that the industry does training
- The one area of support that Sundt is looking for:
- They believe NCCER is spread pretty thin with our workforce development managers
- Ex: Sundt has a counselor event that they do every year, and think it could be useful to have an NCCER rep there to talk about our business
What advice would you give to other contractors considering NCCER?
- Sundt actually gets this quite a bit
- They send just about every contractor that they can find to NCCER’s website or programs that they are interested in
- Sundt is starting to see more bang for their buck with education because they partner a lot with community colleges it is still shocking to see how many of them have misconceptions about NCCER
- Might be too expensive or too crazy
- They are getting this information from their local unions
- Sundt has been doing a big push to try to get more community colleges and high schools to see how vital NCCER is
- Spend probably 80-85% of their time talking to high schools, community colleges, and non-profit organizations to use NCCER
- In Sean’s opinion, if you focus on the education piece/pre-apprenticeship, that almost forces contractors and companies to go to NCCER
