The Skilled Labor Fund, managed by the National Housing Endowment (a 501(c)(3) Foundation) and focused on addressing the lack of skilled labor entering the residential construction industry, and Ammunition, the Fund’s Agency-of-Record, have launched a new creative campaign, titled “The Future Won’t Build Itself."

According to McKinsey’s “The Next Normal In Construction” (June 2020), “Forty-one percent of the current US construction workforce is expected to retire by 2031.” While this represents opportunities in an industry that continues to grow in the midst of COVID-19, there remains a lack of awareness and interest in the trades, especially amongst high-school students. According to the National Kitchen and Bath Association’s (NKBA) “Skilled Trade Candidate Attitudinal Assessment Study” (June 2020), approximately half of high school students are open to a career in the skilled trades, while the majority of students are not seeking information about these opportunities.

Ammunition partnered with the Skilled Labor Fund to create its new campaign, “The Future Won’t Build Itself," which speaks to the vast growth potential that the home building industry provides and the need for new skilled labor to keep the industry’s momentum going. The new campaign’s messaging seeks to (1) increase awareness of the need to get more people engaged in and interested in the trades and (2) raise funds to increase awareness of and training for the skilled trades to middle school, high school and vocational students across the United States.

“We are proud of the new campaign, as it highlights a critical issue facing the home building industry,” said Jeremy Heilpern, CEO at Ammunition. “We really wanted to create a campaign that stops you in your tracks and makes you think. We wanted industry professionals to realize that this is a critical issue that’s getting worse by the day, and if not addressed, could have huge repercussions. We really wanted our audience to feel what the impact of not having enough skilled laborers to build the future would look like in a very artful yet surreal way. Make no mistake, we know the work the Skilled Labor Fund is doing is mission critical to the home and building industry, and this campaign seeks to highlight that importance while driving awareness and education along the way.”

This new campaign went live in mid-November, first appearing on SGC Horizon’s ProBuilder.com and ProRemodeler.com, and will soon launch across numerous digital and social media channels as well. Viewers of the digital campaign are directed to the Fund’s website (skilledlaborfund.org), which enables them to get more information about the Fund’s mission and to make contributions, which are used to provide skilled trades educational programs at high schools and vocational schools across the country.

“We are excited about the new campaign that Ammunition has developed for us and its potential to increase awareness of our work and to increase contributions to the Fund,” said Mark Pursell, CEO at the National Housing Endowment, the parent organization of The Skilled Labor Fund. “With this campaign and the increased fundraising we expect it to drive, we’ll be able to increase the number of schools and students that we’ll be able to introduce a career in the skilled trades to.”