Building the Workforce It Needs: Superior Construction Bets on Training Its Own
In this interview, Robert Paske, director of field operations, explains why Superior thinks that investment is worth it. He also describes where the labor shortage is hitting the company’s Florida and Indiana projects. Jessica Paske, director of organizational development, discusses how STEP aims to recruit and keep women in field roles, where they hold only about 4.3% of skilled craft jobs nationally. She also covers how the company will measure the program’s success and how its new 13,000-square-foot training facility and equipment simulators will change the way apprentices learn.
About the Author
Gavin Jenkins, Head of ContentGavin Jenkins, Head of Content
Head of Content
Gavin Jenkins is an award-winning journalist based in Pittsburgh. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, VICE, Narrative.ly, Prevention, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Beijing Review.
In 2020, two stories he wrote for Pitt Med Magazine earned three Golden Quill Awards from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania. “Surviving Survival” won Excellence in Corporate, Marketing and Promotional Communications – Written, Medical/Health, while “Oct. 27, 2018: Pittsburgh’s Darkest Day, and the Mass Casualty Response” won Excellence in Written Journalism, Magazines – Medical/Health, as well as the Ray Sprigle Memorial Award: Magazines, a Best in Show award.
After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in 2003, he covered sports for the Bedford Gazette, in Bedford, Pa., and the Martinsville Bulletin, in Martinsville, Va. In 2006, he returned to Pittsburgh to write for Trib Total Media. Based out of the Kittanning Leader Times, he worked for the Trib for two years, and then he moved to Shenzhen, China, to teach English and freelance. After two years in China, he earned an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Pittsburgh.
When he's not at work, he's usually playing with his border-collie mix, Bob.
