Greater Michigan Construction Academy Announces New Changes
MIDLAND, Mich. — Greater Michigan Construction Academy (GMCA) President Jimmy Greene is stepping down to focus solely on his role as CEO and President of Associated Builders and Contractors, Great Michigan Chapter (ABC). The GMCA’s board announced that Stephanie Davis, previously Vice President, will succeed him. Bridget Sadenwater will succeed Ms. Davis as Vice President.
The GMCA is a program led by ABC, the local chapter of the national trade association that advances and defends the principles of the merit shop in the construction industry. It was recently denied reaccreditation from the Commission of the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education & Training (ACCET). The decision, according to the ACCET’s report, was based upon the institution’s Analytic Self-Evaluation Report and Branch Analytic Self-Evaluation Report, as well as on-site team visits to the Midland and Lansing campuses in the Spring of 2018.
Mr. Greene told the City Paper that the GMCA’s leadership changes are unrelated to the reaccreditation denial.
“We didn’t file for re-accreditation after the visit with the ACCET Team simply because it wasn’t a designation we needed in order to provide services to high school students,” Mr. Greene told the City Paper. “It is important to note that we were accredited as a first and only skilled trades training facility of its kind. It was the only reason we sought accreditation after 40 years of training adult apprentices.”
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The GMCA is, however, an accredited member of the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER). This accreditation means GMCA meets and exceeds all requirements of the nationally standardized program.
As a result, each student is entered into a national teaching program that can be easily transferred among accredited sponsors and throughout the industry. In other words, a GMCA student can take their transcripts to any other participating NCCER member and continue training, having a recognized document to reflect past classroom experiences.
“That said their standards which apply to universities and colleges; after they adjusted them no longer met the industry standards (commercial building trades) we train under,” said Mr. Greene.
Ms. Davis has been with the GMCA for six years.
“I’m so proud of what Stephanie has accomplished and so many of the Academy’s successes have been as a direct result of her leadership anyway so this is a great choice by the Board. I couldn’t ask for a better successor” said Mr. Greene.
Ms. Sadenwater joined GMCA six years ago as well, and has been instrumental in the Academy’s Saginaw campus success and will now assume the responsibility over their work-based learning and placement programs in Saginaw, Midland and Lansing. She is a graduate of Saginaw Valley State University and is pursuing her master’s degree at Penn State University.
“Bridget has been a quiet and focused leader at the [GMCA] since she arrived and the respect she’s garnered working with training partners and schools has contributed greatly to our success,” said Mr. Greene.
GMCA facilitates opportunities for career growth in the construction industry through continuing education programs targeting craft workers, foremen, supervisors, project managers, superintendents and company management.
“We’ve worked deliberately to separate both organizations so that they’re operating independently while in partnership to further the success of each,” said GMCA Board Chair Frank Pytlowany of AIS Equipment. “Jimmy Greene as the first CEO of The Greater Michigan Construction Academy has taken us to great heights, and we’re excited about where Stephanie will lead us next.”
According to a media release, the GMCA says they were denied ACCET reaccreditation “because our Board of Directors, based on a recommendation from staff, made a decision that the process governing us (we were a first of our kind for them) and recommendations from ACCET simply didn’t align with the culture of our industry and offered no economic value to its training programs.”
“ACCET’s experience and expertise is centered around measurements based on ‘credits’ and not ‘hours’; the basis of our apprenticeship program as set by the Department of Labor,” the release goes on to state, “The irony in the ACCET letter is that all of those ‘standards’ have indeed been met internally and we thanked their team for the suggestions in a letter in response to their decision.”
The release also included a letter from their accreditation advisors which expressed that while they provided an appeals process at a cost of $8,500, GMCA decided it would not be in their best interest as well as “an unnecessary waste of time and money best spent on training equipment and other resources.”
New Director of Instruction
John LaFever has been named Director of Instruction for the GMCA. Mr. LaFever comes onboard after a 35-year career at Dow and DowDuPont.
“We teach 11 different trades, anything from carpentry to electrical to welding to HVAC, we teach those, and we have three main locations in Midland, Lansing and Saginaw,” Valerie Klein, ABC Greater Michigan’s Marketing & Events Coordinator, told the City Paper. “The construction academy is a four-year program — they come one night a week between fall and winter semesters.”
A media release says that Mr. LaFever led many divisions inside of Dow and was the Geographic Implementation Leader as a part of the DowDuPont division. He is a graduate of Northwood University earning a BBA in Management and Mid Michigan Community College earning an Associates in Applied Science with a major in Heating Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration where he was an adjunct professor.
“John works directly with our instructors, he is going to be the glue that holds it together,” Ms. Klein told the City Paper. “He’s going to be a direct outreach to them. It kind of worked out, he was looking for something and we were looking for him.”
GMCA began its apprenticeship training program in 1983. Called the Merit Shop Training Program, the classes utilized the Wheels of Learning curriculum developed by ABC National. The first classes offered were electrical and pipe fitter. Three years later, in 1986, the programs’ first graduating class was awarded certifications.
“We are thrilled to have someone like John join us and this demonstrates our commitment to recruiting, training and developing the best instructors to educate the next generation of skilled tradespeople,” said Mr. Greene.
Michael Westendorf contributed to this report.
A.J. Hoffman reports on local business and the arts for the City Paper. He also serves on the City Paper’s board of directors.