Brasfield & Gorrie
Brasfield & Gorrie is a nationally recognized construction company known for building lasting partnerships alongside exceptional projects. Since 1964, the company has grown into one of the country’s largest contractors by combining technical expertise with a commitment to serving clients, communities, and the construction industry. Through its collaborative approach and dedication to workforce development, Brasfield & Gorrie continues to help shape the future of construction while investing in the people who make every project possible.
How does your organization use NCCER programs and services?
Brasfield & Gorrie’s commitment to craft training goes back to 1997, when we built an in-house training program specifically because off-the-shelf options weren’t meeting our field workforce’s needs. Today, that commitment lives on through our NCCER-accredited Field Training and Assessment Center, based in Trussville, Alabama, and operated by our Career Development Department. NCCER is the backbone of our craft education strategy — from entry-level apprenticeship through certification-driven safety credentials — allowing us to deliver consistent, industry-recognized training to our operations and field employees company-wide.
Which pieces of NCCER’s system does your company use?
- Curriculum: Our Department of Labor-approved Industrial Carpentry Program is built on NCCER’s curriculum and delivered through the NCCER Connect platform over a one- to two-year track combining classroom instruction with on-the-job training.
- New Pipefitter Curriculum: Launched this year, our two-year pipefitter program is built on NCCER’s Pipefitter curriculum and combines quarterly classroom instruction with hands-on training in installation, layout, blueprints, and field calculations — developed to meet growing demand for this craft and strengthen our self-perform capabilities across regions.
- Pipelayer Curriculum: Our pipelaying course is based on NCCER’s Pipelayer curriculum, paired with B&G’s decades of experience laying pipe on industrial and civil self-perform projects. It’s delivered in four one-week sessions over a year at our Field Training Center in Birmingham, led by a retired B&G industrial superintendent with over 40 years of pipelaying and pipefitting experience.
- Assessments & Certification: Participants in our craft programs take NCCER end-of-year assessments, with incentives built in for both completing the training and achieving certification.
- Instructor / Master Trainer Certification: Since 1997, we’ve certified our own field leaders as NCCER master trainers, enabling them to train and certify additional craft instructors internally — a model that scaled our program from two certified trainers to dozens of certified instructors within just a few years.
- Safety & Rigging Credentials: We use NCCER-certified courses for Advanced Rigger and Signal Person/Basic Rigger certifications, along with NCCER as one of our accredited pathways for crane operator certification.
- Community & Workforce Development: We partner with NCCER on national craft development efforts, including sponsoring the Carpentry Competition at the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference, where we also host student competitors for jobsite tours connecting their training to real career paths.
Why did your organization choose NCCER?
When our own employee surveys in the late 1990s revealed that job training and new-employee orientation weren’t strong enough, we needed a partner with a nationally standardized, portable curriculum — not another patchwork solution. NCCER offered a credentialing system recognized across the industry, a master-trainer model that let us build training capacity internally rather than depend on outside vendors, and a framework flexible enough to grow with us — from our first carpentry class in 1997 to the multi-craft, multi-region Field Training Center we operate today.
What results or successes have you experienced?
- Grew from our first class of 18 trainees in 1997 to 37 NCCER-certified instructors by 2001, and a purpose-built training facility that has since relocated and expanded to keep pace with company growth.
- Our Field Apprenticeship Program saw a 207% increase in enrollment from 2024 to 2025, reflecting the strength of the pipeline NCCER-based training helps us build.
- B&G craft employees have represented the company on national stages, including the ABC National Craft Championships and SkillsUSA, showcasing the caliber of training our program produces.
- The Field Training Center has expanded well beyond its original carpentry focus into pipefitting, pipelaying, rigging/signaling, crane operations, and supervisory development — creating a clear career pathway from craft worker to foreman to superintendent.
What advice would you give to other contractors considering NCCER?
Start with leadership buy-in and a dedicated training function — ours grew out of listening directly to our workforce about what they needed. Invest in getting your own people certified as NCCER master trainers rather than outsourcing entirely; it builds internal capacity and keeps training grounded in how your company actually builds. Pair NCCER’s standardized curriculum with real on-the-job application, and don’t treat training as a single class — build it into a career pathway with incentives at every step, from entry-level certification through leadership development. The consistency NCCER provides across a growing footprint of offices and regions has been invaluable for us.
