Pella Corporation Partners with SkillsUSA and Fine Homebuilding to Prepare the Next Generation of Skilled Workers

The trade industry continues to face a labor shortage driven by the demands of a growing housing market and a shortage of qualified labor. Pella Corporation hopes to help close the skills gap and elevate the trade industry by bringing awareness to skills training and offering scholarship opportunities to aspiring tradespeople. For the second year in a row, the company is supporting Fine Homebuilding's #KeepCraftAlive movement by committing $30,000 to the #KeepCraftAlive Scholarship Fund.

Through the #KeepCraftAlive fund, 24 competitive, criteria-based scholarships for postsecondary education are distributed to SkillsuSA students at $2,500 each. Pella has supported the #KeepCraftAlive Scholarship Fund in the SkillsUSA Foundation since its inception three years ago.

“This is an exciting partnership for our company,” says Tricia Uitermarkt, Marketing Manager at Pella Corporation. “We fully believe giving students extra training at this early level will elevate their trade careers and bring awareness to the skilled labor gap.”

SkillsUSA is an organization established to improve the quality of the United States’ future skilled workforce. Their curriculum is taught in over 20,000 classrooms nationwide, has a student membership of 345,000 and spans 130 trade areas. The SkillsUSA approach is to help middle, high school and college and post-secondary students enrolled in career and technical education through a ‘learn by doing’ curriculum, focusing on employability skill development with local instructors.

“SkillsUSA and Fine Homebuilding are making a difference in students’ lives,” says Uitermarkt. “This aligns with Pella’s commitment to helping our communities. Now more than ever, supporting the #KeepCraftAlive Scholarship Fund is one way we hope to empower the next generation of skilled workers and encourage them to elevate their craft.”