The Dan Beard Council is expanding the mission of its Dever Family Foundation Skilled Trades Education Center beyond young people, and ABC Ohio Valley members have a narrow window to influence what comes next. Starting this fall, the Council is exploring skilled trades leadership development programs for experienced tradespeople—covering leadership training, people management, and project management fundamentals. But here is the key detail: the program has not yet been designed, and your input will shape it.

This article outlines the upcoming leadership development initiative for experienced trades professionals in the Ohio Valley, explains how members can shape the program, and highlights the importance of strong leadership for business success and workforce development. The scope of this initiative is leadership development for experienced tradespeople, targeting ABC Ohio Valley members, contractors, and workforce leaders. Addressing the leadership gap in skilled trades is critical for the future competitiveness and sustainability of the construction industry in our region.

Key Takeaways

• The Dan Beard Council is expanding its Skilled Trades Education Center at Camp Friedlander to include leadership development for experienced trades professionals, with pilot cohorts targeted for fall 2026.
• ABC Ohio Valley is asking members to complete a five-minute survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/STECDEV by June 30, 2026, so the program reflects the real needs of Ohio Valley employers.
• Many small and mid-sized contractors across the Dayton–Cincinnati corridor, Northern Kentucky, and Southeast Indiana lack internal capacity to develop crew leaders, foremen, superintendents, and project managers—this initiative fills that gap.
• The Center is a 10,000-square-foot, roughly $2.5 million facility with hands-on bays for carpentry, electrical, plumbing, welding, automotive, and robotics, serving a Council that reaches approximately 11,000 youth.
• This program would complement ABC Ohio Valley apprenticeship, workforce, and foreman training efforts—not compete with them—and member feedback now will shape regional skilled trades training for years.

Why This Skilled Trades Leadership Initiative Matters Right Now

Current Challenges

As of June 2026, the Dan Beard Council is preparing to take its Skilled Trades Education Center from a youth-exposure facility into a training resource for experienced trades professionals. The vision is straightforward: use the same hands-on infrastructure that introduces young people to the skilled trades and repurpose it to develop leadership skills among working journeypersons, foremen, and field supervisors.

Program Vision

ABC Ohio Valley has been asked to help shape this initiative before curriculum, schedule, or format decisions are locked in. A time-limited member survey—closing June 30, 2026—will guide those decisions. This is your chance to tell the program designers what your teams actually need on the job site.

The labor realities make this urgent. Contractors from Dayton to Cincinnati to Florence, KY, and into Southeast Indiana are competing for the same limited pool of foremen, superintendents, and project managers. Nearly 94% of contractors report unfilled craft positions, and 92% struggle to fill salaried leadership roles like PMs and superintendents. Roughly 40% of the current construction workforce is expected to retire by 2030, taking decades of field leadership knowledge with them.

What does this look like on your projects? Your best electrician gets promoted to run a five-person crew on a new warehouse—and suddenly she is managing schedules, budgets, and personalities with zero preparation. A carpenter foreman on a school renovation struggles with documentation, RFIs, and conflict resolution because no one ever taught him those soft skills. These are not hypothetical challenges. They are daily realities that erode margins and create safety risks. The construction industry’s ongoing project backlog, tight margins, and rising expectations make leadership development a strategic business function for every contractor in our region.

The Dever Family Foundation Skilled Trades Education Center: From Youth Pipeline to Trade Leaders

The Dever Family Foundation Skilled Trades Education Center at Camp Friedlander in Loveland, Ohio, opened in January 2026 to more than 250 guests. It is a modern, approximately 10,000-square-foot, roughly $2.5 million facility purpose-built for hands-on, lab-style skilled trades training in a camp setting already familiar to thousands of local families.

The Center features dedicated bays for carpentry, electrical, plumbing, welding, automotive, and robotics—each designed for meaningful, applied instruction rather than classroom-only learning. These bays enable leadership training modules that put participants through mock job-site scenarios, problem-solving exercises, and hands-on coordination drills using real materials and tools.

The Dan Beard Council serves about 11,000 young people across Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, with roughly 5,000 of them eligible for trades program activities at the Center. That youth pipeline—already focused on the next generation of tradespeople—is now being leveraged to build a continuum into adult leadership development. The Council’s roots in the Scouting leadership model, in which merit badges, rank advancement, and youth-led projects build confidence and commitment over time, provide a proven framework. Adapting that model for experienced tradespeople who need to grow as trade leaders and project managers is a natural extension.

The Leadership Gap on Ohio Valley Job Sites

Target Audience

If you are an ABC Ohio Valley contractor, executive, or workforce leader, you feel this gap every day. Across the Dayton–Cincinnati corridor, Northern Kentucky, and Southeast Indiana commercial markets, the demand for competent field leadership far exceeds supply.

Current Challenges

Most small to mid-sized merit shop organizations have strong apprenticeship pathways and solid technical expertise within their teams. What they lack is the internal bandwidth to build structured training programs for leadership roles—foreman, superintendent, field project manager. Specific leadership skills missing on many job sites include people management, coaching apprentices, planning and sequencing work across trades, running effective job site meetings, reading and communicating drawings and specs, coordinating with GCs and subcontractors, and handling documentation and change orders.

These gaps show up in measurable outcomes: schedule slippage on projects in Cincinnati and Dayton, rework that eats slim margins on Northern Kentucky projects, safety incidents caused by unclear direction, and turnover among promising journey-level workers who see no career development path.

Consider a small electrical contractor in West Chester that promotes its best journeyman to foreman on a large warehouse project—he has the technical skills but no training in managing teams or running processes. Or a masonry contractor in Florence that sends a lead to manage a multi-phase school addition without formal project-management support. These scenarios play out across our trades communities constantly. Once basic craft skills and safety culture are in place, the region’s future competitiveness depends on developing a broader bench of leaders who can supervise, manage people, and think like project managers.

What a Regional Skilled Trades Leadership Development Program Could Look Like

What Does Leadership Development Mean in the Skilled Trades?

Leadership development in the skilled trades includes:

• Enhancing communication and mentorship skills among crew leaders and supervisors.
• Providing practical, on-the-job training that goes beyond classroom theory.
• Building people management and team-building abilities to foster a positive work environment.
• Focusing on soft skills such as conflict resolution, motivation, and effective delegation.
• Encouraging structured mentorship and applied knowledge to prepare tradespeople for supervisory and management roles.

Program Vision

The program is not yet locked in. That is the point. ABC Ohio Valley members are encouraged to shape it through the June 30 survey. Here is what is being explored:

Target Audience

• Target participants: Journeypersons with 5–15 years of experience in carpentry, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, welding, concrete, and other construction trades who are current crew leads or on deck for supervisory roles.

Potential Course Modules

• Possible course modules: Leadership Fundamentals for Foremen, People-Management and Communication on the Job, Construction Project Management Basics for Field Leaders, Safety Leadership and Culture, Productivity and Lean Thinking for continuous improvement, and Navigating Documentation, RFIs, and Change Orders.

Delivery Formats

• Delivery formats: Short evening series during slower months; intensive one- to two-day bootcamps in the Center’s bays; blended sessions using online learning platforms and in-person instruction; and company-cohort options where several leaders from one firm train together.
• Content approach: All materials would be grounded in real Ohio Valley market scenarios, using the Center’s bays for hands-on problem-solving, mock job-site exercises, and role-plays—not generic slide decks from another world.
• Accessibility: The intent is a low-cost, accessible regional program. Modest tuition, potential sponsorship resources, and scheduling that does not pull valuable leaders off jobs for extended periods. Mentorship and certification pathways are also being considered.

Survey responses will determine which modules launch first in fall 2026 and whether the focus should lean toward foreman-level leadership training, superintendent preparation, or project-management fundamentals for field leaders. This is your chance to make it relevant.

How This Complements ABC Ohio Valley Apprenticeship and Workforce Programs

ABC Ohio Valley views this initiative as a complement to its own apprenticeship, craft, and workforce programs—not a replacement. The chapter’s existing investment in the skilled trades pipeline includes apprenticeship programs, safety education, and workforce development led by the VP of Workforce, as well as scholarship and outreach efforts through the TOOLS Foundation.

ABC Ohio Valley has a longstanding, committed relationship with the Dan Beard Council, including a shared focus on exposing youth to construction careers. The lane for this new trades program is clear: while ABC Ohio Valley focuses on building skilled craftworkers and offering foreman and supervisor training, the Center can add capacity and specialized facilities to support deeper leadership and project-management growth.

In practice, an ABC Ohio Valley contractor might use both: apprentices go through ABC programs to build technical skills and safety habits, and as they step into lead roles, they attend leadership training cohorts at the Center to strengthen people-management, communication, and effective leadership practices. By collaborating now, both organizations can align curricula, avoid duplication, and build a coherent career ladder from trade school exposure to seasoned superintendent development.

Business Impact for Ohio Valley Contractors: Why Your Input Matters

This comes down to business outcomes: profitability, schedule reliability, safety performance, and succession planning for Ohio Valley merit shop firms.

Stronger leadership skills at the crew lead and superintendent levels positively impact every project metric that matters. Companies that invest in formal leadership development report measurable gains in retention, reduced rework, and improved safety climate. For a drywall contractor in Hamilton, that might mean fewer change orders when foremen understand the basics of project management. For a plumbing contractor in Northern Kentucky, it could mean retaining high-potential journeypersons who feel empowered and invested in—rather than watching them leave for a competitor offering career growth.

Many ABC Ohio Valley members are led by first- or second-generation owners working hard to transition responsibility over the next decade. They need a bench of senior leaders ready to step into bigger roles. A regional program like this removes barriers for smaller contractors who lack internal training departments—by pooling demand, the Center can deliver high-quality leadership development at a cost and scale that an individual firm could not manage alone. Investing five minutes in the survey is a small commitment that can yield long-term returns: stronger teams, better job performance, more people prepared to lead, and more predictable business success across the Ohio Valley.

How to Weigh In: The June 30 Survey

ABC Ohio Valley members: visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/STECDEV and complete the five-minute survey before June 30, 2026.

The survey asks which skilled trades and roles you most need leadership training for—electrical foremen, carpentry crew leads, HVAC service managers—along with preferred training formats, times, and the most critical leadership competencies to address. Responses will be used specifically to shape program design for the Ohio Valley region and inform which modules to pilot first this fall.

If you are involved in workforce decisions, indicate on the survey whether you are interested in sending participants to fall 2026 pilot cohorts or serving on an employer advisory group. Forward the survey link to your operations managers, superintendents, and high-potential field leaders so that responses reflect real job-site needs from every perspective.

Five minutes by June 30 can help design the leadership training your foremen, superintendents, and project managers will rely on for the next decade. Your industry needs successful trade leaders. Help build the program that develops them.

FAQ: Skilled Trades Leadership Development Initiative

9.1 Who is this new skilled trades leadership training intended for?

The envisioned program targets experienced tradespeople across the construction industry—typically journeypersons with several years in the field who are leading crews now or being groomed for leadership roles such as foreman, superintendent, or field project manager. It is not an entry-level trades program; it is designed for the person who already has the technical expertise and needs to develop leadership style, management skills, and the confidence to succeed in supervisory positions.

How is this different from ABC Ohio Valley’s apprenticeship and foreman training?

ABC Ohio Valley’s apprenticeship programs and existing foreman training remain the primary pathways for technical skill-building and first-level supervision. The new initiative at the Skilled Trades Education Center would add more in-depth leadership, people management, and project management content, using specialized facilities, digital tools, and a regional cross-employer cohort model to support broader career development.

Which trades and geographic areas will be served?

The intent is to serve a broad range of skilled trades tied to commercial construction—carpentry, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, welding, mechanical, concrete, and related fields—with a focus on employers operating in the Dayton–Cincinnati corridor, Northern Kentucky, and Southeast Indiana within the Ohio Valley community.

What will it cost to participate?

Pricing has not been finalized and will be influenced by employer feedback. The goal is a low-cost, high-value program accessible to small- and mid-sized contractors, with sponsorship or scholarship options where possible. The survey invites members to share their budget expectations and what would make participation realistic for their organizations.

When will the first leadership training cohorts start?

The Dan Beard Council and ABC Ohio Valley are targeting initial pilot cohorts for fall 2026 at the Dever Family Foundation Skilled Trades Education Center, with exact dates, modules, and schedules to be determined after reviewing survey responses collected by June 30, 2026. Your input now directly shapes that technology-enabled, hands-on curriculum and timeline.