Teaching the next generation of coatings installers

By Emma Peterson. 

Ryan Knippel shares insight into the roofing skill shortage, and the role training and education have in solving it.  

As one of SOPREMA’s business development managers, Ryan Knippel has a front-row seat to the how coatings are reshaping the modern roofing industry in everything from building envelope performance to a shifting labor landscape. To learn more about the labor landscape, he joined us for a CoatingsTalk™ to share his thoughts on how we can solve the current skill shortage issue.  

We’ve heard about the challenges the labor shortage has presented to the market, but one of the most pressing issues resulting from the shortage is skill loss due to retirement. Ryan shared, “We are seeing a lot of key people who really paved the way for this market to retire. And as they take that well-deserved step out, we are not only losing workers in the field, but we’re also losing their knowledge, the tricks of the trade, that back-of-hand knowledge.” 

It is more important now than ever to bring young people into the trade while there are still some of these key individuals still working to teach them what they know. Ryan explained, “First, obviously we need to get new people into the workforce. But we cannot forget that we need to educate them properly when they get here. We have to give them an understanding of everything that's made available and readily accessible to solve a problem.” 

This type of education is something that Ryan and the team at SOPREMA are supporting through programs like their applicator training. Ryan shared a bit about this training in particular, saying, “Our applicator training is for contractors who want to gain that back-of-the-hand knowledge, who want to know the all the ins and outs, and odds and ends, and all the fun little things about coatings. Not only do they teach you about our product offerings, but they also create a space to share information and learn from other professionals.” And creating spaces like that is one of the best ways to retain industry knowledge even as our trailblazers retire.  

Listen to the whole episode or Watch the recording of the podcast to hear more of Ryan’s insights into labor and skill shortages.