Crafting curriculum for construction excellence

By Dani Sheehan. 

Meticulously cultivated by industry experts, these professional development courses are changing the game for roofing education at every level. 

Celebrating their tenth anniversary of hosting the Construction Management Student Competition at the International Roofing Expo (IRE) this year, the Roofing Alliance continues the celebrations with more exciting news. In the most recent episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Heidi J. Ellsworth joins Roofing Alliance Executive Director Alison LaValley, CEO of EagleView, Piers Dormeyer and Director of Undergraduate Programs Dhaval Gajjar to talk about the roofing courses developed in partnership with Clemson University. You won’t want to miss this amazing opportunity for critical roofing education to boost your career and grow your company. 

The Roofing Alliance has been leading the way for over ten years with an initiative to partner with construction management schools. Not only have they been funding efforts like the student competition each year, but they have taken a hands-on approach to get roofing into schools. Alison LaValley explains, “We are now holding faculty retreats to educate faculty about how to implement this terrific curriculum, and it goes on and on. But one of the biggest things that we have done and do, in large part or most part to Dhaval and this work at Clemson, is the development of this curriculum, really to be able to educate these students.” 

Dhaval talks about how quickly this curriculum has been developed and adds some of his experience recognizing the need for roofing education to become a standard in construction management programs. “When I look at our curriculum and not just Clemson, you look at any construction management curriculum across the nation, what we find is roofing was only talked about for maybe 30 to 45 minutes. That includes undergraduate, master's and PhD. So, that was very sort of bothering as we have this amazing industry with the great career paths, so many different opportunities at all levels.” 

Piers emphatically agrees with Dhaval and continues, “I was frankly a little bit shocked that there wasn't this type of course out there already... You start thinking about the importance of a roof on a structure, it's right up there with foundation as the most important things that you have got to get right if you're building buildings or homes. So, this was just such an obvious thing for us to support and really drive and get behind.” 

These courses are tailored to offer a robust education to industry professionals from all educational levels, backgrounds and experiences. Self-paced and available online, they allow participants the flexibility to fit their learning experience to their own schedule.  

Read the transcript or Listen to the podcast to learn more about the incredible partnership between the Roofing Alliance and Clemson University.