Workforce Development

Assisting MBI members in building their workforce is a major part of what MBI does. Sometimes that assistance comes in the form of educating and training a current workforce, and sometimes it comes in providing resources to assist companies in bringing new talent on board.

Since 2016, MBI has been developing an initiative to recruit new faces into the commercial construction industry, as well as to develop resources that assist MBI members in recruiting those new faces into their companies.

On this page, you will find information on the different facets of MBI’s workforce initiative program including Build Iowa, Construction Week, and MBI’s Job Board. In addition, you can read about some of our partnerships in this area including Home Base Iowa, and MBI’s Scholarship Program.

Finally, MBI is fortunate to have a fantastic level of member engagement to assist and guide our workforce development efforts. Below is an employee onboarding guide that was put together by the MB EYE on the Future class of 2019. Through industry research and collaboration, they worked for several months to assemble a document that includes suggestions and ideas for onboarding employees to your company in a way that increases retention and employee engagement.

• Onboarding Guide

MBI’s job board is reserved for the exclusive use of MBI members. This is a place where members can post any open positions they have in their companies. Positions can be posted by the company Job Board contact by simply logging into MBI’s website with their user credentials and going to their personal profile.

Postings will automatically be transferred to the job board, IowaConstructionJobs.com, which is marketed in a variety of ways all over the state of Iowa.

For password assistance, please contact Nichole Fry at NFry@MBI.Build.

Become a Home Base Iowa Business Partner Today!

It goes without saying that employers are actively searching for men and women with the skills already possessed by military veterans. In serving our country, these individuals have proven a great work ethic, a willingness to learn, and the ability to lead themselves and others. All of these are attributes that play a major role in a successful career in the construction industry.

Home Base Iowa (HBI) is a one-of-a-kind program connecting veterans and transitioning service members with HBI partners and resources. HBI connects qualified veterans looking for career opportunities with businesses that are looking to hire skilled workers.

As an employer, we encourage you to visit the HBI website to create an account for your company. By creating an account on the site, you will be able to create and edit your company profile and review resumes that veterans are submitting to Home Base Iowa.  Once a veteran uploads their resume to HBI, registered companies will be notified if qualifications and locations match their company profile.

• Home Base Iowa Website
• Home Base Iowa Brochure

As our industry continues to grow, we look to our high school and college programs for future leaders. With the generous support of our members, we are proud to be able to provide financial assistance to those individuals that exemplify and represent MBI’s standards of excellence, achievement, honor, civic responsibility, and potential in our industry.

Students at ISU and UNI have been receiving financial assistance from MBI and their members since 1950. These students have demonstrated an exemplary record and a passion for the future of the industry. Students are carefully selected by the schools and then interviewed by the MBI Scholarship & Academic Advisory Committee. Each year the committee is increasingly impressed with the applicants and their drive to become integral members of the construction industry. We are all looking forward to watching them on their path to success. To date, over $320,000 has been awarded to these deserving students!

• ISU Construction, Civil & Environmental Engineering
• UNI Dept of Tech
• ISU AGC Student Chapter
• UNI Construction Management Club

Master Builders of Iowa in partnership with Victory Enterprises created a career exploration program allowing students in the classroom to experience what a career would look like on a commercial construction jobsite. Known as the Build Iowa Virtual Reality Program, this tool is a powerful and fun way for students to receive many of the same benefits of a traditional job shadow through an immersive virtual reality headset.

Students in your community school can be engaged in a one-of-a-kind experience. Our virtual reality job shadows include ten industry related careers that include: Project Manager, Project Superintendent, HVAC, Plumber/Pipefitter, Electrician, Drywall Finisher, Mason, Carpenter, Heavy Equipment Operator and Ironworker. These virtual reality tracks are designed to show students and their teachers what each trade looks like, their average salaries, qualifications and skills required to perform each job.

As an MBI member benefit you can partner with your local school district to bring the Build Iowa Virtual Reality Program to life for students in your area.

To partner with MBI to conduct a presentation in your community contact Adam DoBraska at ADoBraska@MBI.Build. 

• Build Iowa Virtual Reality Program Request Form