Building Momentum: Inside the Construction Sector Partnership

What if the people experiencing an industry’s workforce challenges every day were not simply asked to respond to solutions, but were given the opportunity to help define the problems and drive what happens next?

That's the idea behind the Next Generation Sector Partnership model. This model is a proven, employer-led framework active in more than 100 regions across 20 states, and the approach ChamberRVA has adopted as the backbone for Rewarding Work, one of the key drivers of RVA Rising, our region's shared economic mobility strategy. This is also the model behind the recently launched Construction Sector Partnership.

The model flips the usual script. Rather than a chamber or nonprofit designing solutions and asking employers to buy in, C-suite leaders within the industry collectively name the issues they are facing and set the priorities themselves. Supported by resource group/team made up of education, workforce development and economic leaders who implement the needed solutions around the priorities identified by industry. ChamberRVA’s role as the convener is to provide the backbone support that connects the different parts of the partnership. That means building trust and engagement among industry leaders, making the right connections to partners, facilitating the work, and keeping the momentum going in focused, 90-day cycles. The convener is not intended to set the agenda for industry. Its role is to create the structure in which industry can lead, and the broader community can respond in a coordinated way.

The Work of the Partnership and the Change Beneath It

One way to understand the partnership’s impact is to think about an iceberg. Above the water are the outcomes that are easiest to see: employers connecting with job seekers, students gaining exposure to construction careers, businesses contributing their time and expertise, or partners launching new activities.

Those outcomes matter. But the larger ambition of a sector partnership sits below the surface.

That is where employers begin working collectively rather than company by company. Education and workforce partners gain a clearer and more consistent understanding of what industry needs. Organizations begin coordinating their roles and resources instead of approaching the same challenges separately. And over time, those changes create the conditions to improve policies, education and training pathways, and the broader systems connecting people to careers. Since launching in October 2025, the Construction Sector Partnership has begun creating impact at several levels:

Resident and Worker Impact

Construction employers are creating more opportunities for people to connect directly with the industry. Five participating companies, for example, planned and executed a successful hiring event in partnership with Virginia Career Works to solve for a lack of industry centered events, while employers have also expanded opportunities for industry to engage more students with experiences to explore construction careers firsthand.

Strategic Partner Impact

Education, workforce and community partners are increasingly organizing around priorities identified by industry. Partners have worked together to share career exposure opportunities more effectively and are engaging directly with construction leaders to better understand where gaps exist between education, training and employment.

Industry Impact

Construction leaders have invested more than 260 hours of executive time in the partnership amounting to a $57,200 in-kind value contribution. More importantly, competitors are sitting at the same table, identifying shared challenges and developing a collective voice around what their industry needs to remain competitive and build its future workforce.

Systems Impact

Some of the partnership’s most promising work is aimed further upstream, at the structures and policies that shape the workforce pipeline itself. Two areas illustrate that potential.

• Aligning Education with Industry

Construction leaders have identified stronger alignment between what students are learning and the skills employers expect them to have upon graduation as a key priority. Through the partnership’s Alignment work, industry leaders are working directly with local school districts to strengthen the connection between classroom instruction and real-world commercial application. In Powhatan, for example, the Alignment Action Team is helping bring industry professionals into the lab portions of CTE courses so students can apply skills taught through a largely residential-focused curriculum in a commercial construction context. The goal is to use this work as a pilot that can inform similar approaches across other school districts in the region. The significance extends beyond solving an individual program challenge. These conversations create a direct feedback loop between the people preparing students and the businesses that will ultimately employ them. Over time, that relationship can help ensure that programs, curriculum, work-based learning and career pathways evolve alongside the needs of the industry.

• Using Industry Voice to Inform Policy

The partnership is also examining how policy can remove barriers and strengthen construction talent pipelines. Industry leaders have been researching Career and Technical Education approaches being used in states including Arizona, Colorado and Georgia, with the goal of identifying ideas that could inform conversations with Virginia policymakers.

The opportunity is larger than advocating for a single program. By bringing multiple construction employers together around common priorities, the partnership can provide policymakers with a clearer industry perspective on where systemic barriers exist and what changes could make it easier for students to move from education into high-demand careers. That is the power of a collective industry signal: rather than policymakers hearing disconnected needs from individual companies or organizations, they can hear a shared perspective grounded in the experience of an industry.

In Their Own Words

"The Construction Sector Partnership kicked off last October with a full host of commercial and residential construction leaders. I have had the privilege of working on the Alignment Committee which is one of 5 sub-committee tasks forces that were formed as a result of the initial meeting. Our group has taken a deep dive into the actual curriculum guidelines for CTE programs to see how this aligns with what the construction trades need in the way of readiness for entry level positions. We have met with and or visited several area programs to get insight on their instruction / lab setups and suggested ways for them to offer more commercial construction focus. Moving forward we are looking for ways to give students and parents a look behind the curtain by having better access to large scale projects during the various phases of construction."

∼ Bruce Tibbetts, President, EMC Mechanical Services

 

"It has been a known issue for decades that there is a shortage of talent entering and staying in the construction workforce. It is very encouraging to see this level of engagement from the top leaders in construction in our region. That gives me confidence that we are going to make a lasting impact, and the progress we have made this year is concrete proof."

∼ Evan Shriver, CEO, Atlantic Constructors Inc.

 

The Construction Sector Partnership is a clear example of what employer-led collaboration can accomplish: hundreds of hours of executive time turned into real progress on workforce development, retention, training, and policy. As the group builds on this momentum, ChamberRVA remains committed to convening the right people and keeping the work moving forward for the industry and the region.

Get Involved

The Construction Sector Partnership is proof of what happens when industry leaders take the wheel. Interested in joining the conversation? Contact Brittany Seward at brittany.seward@chamberrva.com.