Builders are feeling the labor pressure
NAHB reported that 61% of its members said worker availability and cost are among the most significant challenges builders face in 2026.
Read NAHB workforce page
Founding Donor Campaign
Help Open the Doors to Rural Trades Training
Build Strong Apprenticeship America is working to launch hands-on trades training for rural Illinois young adults. We believe the students will come once the opportunity exists. Right now, we need founding donors, sponsors, and a trades instructor to help us open the doors.
The honest ask
The barrier is not student interest. The barrier is opening the program.
Rural students need practical career options. Local contractors need skilled workers. Families need alternatives to debt-heavy college routes. Rural towns need young adults earning, building, repairing, and staying local.
BSA exists to bridge that gap with hands-on residential trades training, small-group instruction, jobsite readiness, safety habits, and employer connection.
But before the first student can walk into class, BSA needs founding support. Donations help fund the instructor, tools, materials, safety equipment, training space, insurance, and startup costs needed to open the doors.
What founding support makes possible
- Pay a qualified founding trades instructor
- Equip the first electrical and plumbing training setups
- Buy safe tools, PPE, materials, and fixtures
- Cover insurance, setup, outreach, and startup operations
- Give rural young adults a real place to start
Why this matters
The need is bigger than one classroom
BSA is local, but the problem is not small. Skilled trades shortages affect construction, housing, maintenance, infrastructure, and rural communities that already have fewer training options close to home.
Illinois apprenticeships show the demand
Illinois had 40,100 newly enrolled construction apprentices from 2017 through 2024, according to an Illinois pre-apprenticeship report.
Read the Illinois reportWorkforce training requires real backing
The same Illinois report found that two major pre-apprenticeship programs invested a combined $66 million from 2017 through 2024.
View the sourceWhy BSA is different
This is not just career awareness. It is a place to start.
BSA is being built as a practical, hands-on pathway focused on residential trades, safety, tools, discipline, jobsite expectations, and employer connection.
Rural by design
Built for communities where transportation, distance, and limited local training options can shut students out before they ever begin.
Hands-on first
Students learn by doing: wiring, plumbing, troubleshooting, using tools, practicing safety, and understanding real jobsite expectations.
Taught by experience
BSA is designed around retired and experienced tradespeople who can pass down what textbooks cannot teach.
Your impact
What your gift helps fund
Every program like this starts with people who decide the next generation is worth investing in. Your gift helps BSA move from vision to working program.
Instructor costs
Help compensate the founding trades instructor whose knowledge makes the first class possible.
Tools and equipment
Hand tools, meters, pipe cutters, PEX tools, wiring devices, panels, fixtures, and student-ready setups.
Safety gear
Gloves, eye protection, first aid, fire extinguishers, lockout/tagout basics, and safe training environments.
Workshop setup
Training sheds, benches, practice walls, plumbing frames, electrical boards, transport, and utilities.
Startup operations
Insurance, forms, outreach, compliance basics, curriculum materials, and the practical cost of getting open.
Student access
Help reduce barriers so rural young adults can say yes when the opportunity is finally available.
Giving levels
Help fund the first class
Every gift matters. Bigger gifts can sponsor major launch needs, but smaller gifts still buy materials, safety supplies, and momentum.
$25Student supplies, fasteners, and small materials
$50Safety supplies, PPE, and practice materials
$100Workshop materials and student-ready training parts
$250Tools, modules, and launch needs
$500Instructor time, equipment, and first-class startup costs
$1,000+Founding Supporter: help open the doors for the first class
$2,500+Founding Sponsor: underwrite instructor costs, workshop setup, or major equipment
Business sponsors and in-kind gifts
Your business can help build the local workforce
Contractors, suppliers, banks, utilities, farms, churches, civic clubs, and local businesses all have a stake in the future skilled trades workforce.
Sponsors can support instructor costs, tools, equipment, materials, safety gear, student support, or the first class. In-kind gifts may include tools, fixtures, wiring materials, plumbing materials, trailers, vehicles, or safe surplus inventory.
Before dropping anything off, please contact George so BSA can confirm what is useful, safe, and program-appropriate.