Matching Today's Military With Tomorrow's Construction Industry
Building and Construction Trades
Helmets to Hardhats is a national program that connects National Guard, Reserve and
transitioning active-duty military members with quality career training and employment
opportunities within the building and construction industry. The program is designed to ease the
difficult passage into civilian life for military families, providing the best career
opportunities, pay, and benefits to those who have earned the nation’s support through their years
of service.
The program collects career opportunities from the nationwide building and construction
trades and works to provide former military personnel with that data. Candidates can access
information about careers and apprenticeships via the Internet from anywhere in the world. To apply
for work or membership, candidates complete a comprehensive profile that helps hiring managers
determine what transferable skills they acquired during their military service. Once a candidate
finds and submits interest in a career opportunity, otherwise known as a digital handshake, they
are contacted by a Helmets to Hardhats representative to ensure all application requirements are
met.
Helmets to Hardhats is co-sponsored by all fifteen Building and Construction Trades
organizations, as well as their employer associations, which together represent about 82,000
contractors. Labor leaders have embraced the program, eager to help military personnel transfer
their experience into secure careers within the construction industry.
"Together, the military and the construction trades have built America over the past several
hundred years with the same kind of sweat, equity, commitment and courage," Lieutenant General H.
Steven Blum, Chief of the National Guard Bureau said. "No other industry in the history of the
United States has ever made a total commitment to support the armed forces by providing access to
the best jobs in construction."
Helmets to Hardhats is gaining significant attention across the nation not only as a program
that works, but also a program that cares. Moving forward, one of the essential goals is to deploy
a statewide direct entry program into every state.
With the implementation of a statewide direct entry program, Helmets to Hardhats candidates
are able to get into quality construction careers soon after applying for them. Once the state
proclamation is signed, it allows all JATCs and locals (at their discretion) to accept current and
former military candidates and provide credit for military training and experience. Thus far, a
total of twenty-one direct entry/support proclamations have been signed by various state political
leaders from Indiana, Ohio, Connecticut, West Virginia, Illinois, Washington, Nebraska, Rhode
Island, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, Virginia, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachusetts,
Delaware, Hawaii, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and California.
Interested personnel are encouraged to visit www.helmetstohardhats.org.
