Dalton—Go Carrera, a labor management platform, and the Floor Covering Education Foundation (FCEF) have partnered to expand efforts to recruit and train new installers. The new partnership aims to ensure these workers can track their progress, build their skills and are able to easily connect with flooring and installation companies in need of skilled labor.
“As a part of our mission, FCEF is committed to providing job placement assistance to individuals that have received scholarships to approved beginning level training programs,” said Kaye Whitener, director of operations for FCEF. “It is important that these new training graduates be placed with installation professionals that are not only properly trained themselves, but ones that will properly mentor them and reinforce the skills they were taught in class. Partnering with Go Carrera provides the FCEF with a valuable resource to promote and place recent training graduates with high-quality professionals.”
To facilitate the connection between flooring and/or installation companies to the new recruits, Go Carrera developed Jumpstart—a job board that allows Go Carrera’s network of flooring installers to browse/hire from a pipeline of new recruits as they come into the industry at no cost. This new feature (coming mid-year 2023) will be available to any independent installer on the Go Carrera Network that holds a minimum Hammer Rating in one or more of the major disciplines as well as any subscribing flooring contractor using Go Carrera to manage their own installation operations. Jumpstart provides the on-ramp for a new recruit’s proper placement as well as tracking their training progress—now and into the future of their flooring career.
Additionally, as part of Go Carrera’s Giveback program, it is dedicating up to $100 per subscribing company per month toward the mission of the FCEF. “It’s a win-win for the flooring industry,” said Paul Stuart, founder of Go Carrera. “We want to drive positive change in our industry by helping set new installers on a course of being ever-changing and growing—always improving. By partnering with the FCEF, we are doing just that.”
Jim Aaron, executive director of the FCEF, added, “The FCEF is a private industry foundation; meaning we are solely industry supported. We can only do the work we’re challenged to do on the installation labor crisis when we have funds to maintain operations and provide scholarships to new recruits. I thank Go Carrera for the innovative example they are setting for the rest of the industry to follow.”