Skilled Trades Training Initiative
Practical skills. Real experience. Real careers.
We provide practical, hands-on training for individuals seeking careers in the U.S. construction industry — young adults, high school graduates, career changers, immigrants, and entry-level workers.
Hands-on, on site
Lake ZurichIllinois
Choose your path
Three ways in, one direction
Wherever you are starting from, the next step is defined — and so is the one after it.
I want to learn a trade
Start a career in construction with practical hands-on training. No experience needed.
Training tracksI already work in construction
Develop advanced technical, leadership and supervisory skills, and move up the site.
Career developmentI want to build a business
Learn how to start, operate and systematically grow a construction company.
EntrepreneurshipHow training works
Assessment
Experience, goals and trade interests
Fundamentals
Safety, tools, measurement, terminology
Hands-on
Real tools and materials, supervised
Evaluation
You demonstrate the work, not describe it
Career prep
Resume, interviews, jobsite communication
20+ yearsResidential construction
Who we are
Building the next skilled workforce
Our mission is to help develop the next generation of skilled construction workers by providing accessible, practical and career-oriented training in residential construction trades.
People arrive with no experience and leave able to be useful on a jobsite from the first week — because they have measured, cut, framed, hung, wired and prepared a site for inspection under supervision.
Training tracks
View all programsCareer pathway
Start with no experience
This is not a single course. It is a route into the skilled construction workforce, with a defined next step at every stage — and it does not stop at being employable.
No experience
An initial assessment establishes trade interests, English level and career goals.
Trainee
Fundamentals: safety, tools, measurement, terminology, jobsite behavior.
Helper
Supervised work with a crew, applying fundamentals in a live environment.
Construction worker
Independent execution of routine tasks to standard, with quality checks.
Skilled worker
Specialization in a trade — framing, drywall, electrical or HVAC.
Crew leader
Organizing two to five workers, daily and material planning, accountability.
Field supervisor
Several projects, subcontractors, schedules, inspections, client communication.
Contractor / business owner
Estimating, sales, project management, building and paying a first crew.
Systemized construction company
SOPs, KPIs, delegation — a business that employs and trains the next workers.
Instructors
Meet the founderTraining is delivered by working construction professionals, not career instructors. What is taught on a Tuesday was done on a jobsite the week before.
Online platform
Learn the theory before you pick up a tool
We are building an online home for the written part of the training, so that hands-on sessions are spent on the work that genuinely needs your hands.
Get started
Ask about training
Tell us where you are starting from. No prior construction experience is required, and there is no cost to ask.
Prefer to talk? +1 312 248 7171