Expanding the Talent Pipeline Through High School Mentoring: ACE Mentor Program & STEM Premier Collaborate

The U.S. is suffering a big shortage of new talent in STEM careers. And running parallel to this shortage is a talent pipeline shortage in the design, architecture and construction industries. Research study after research study report companies struggling to find recent graduates with the appropriate skills for their open positions.

Officeinsight has chronicled the talent issue in its pages by reporting on research from furniture manufacturers, interiors firms, and organizations such as the National Council of Architectural Registration Board (NCARB). And in the construction and general contracting field, related professions will see a shortage of 800,000 workers in the coming years, according to the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC).

If we don’t resolve the talent issue, we should be prepared to feel a negative impact in everything from client and employee satisfaction down to general public views of our industries. But, there are things we can do to reverse the talent shortage trend. These creative solutions often require work on top of the work professionals in the industry are already doing, but isn’t it worth it?

Mentor programs are excellent avenues through which professionals can encourage college students and young graduates to continue down a certain career path. But mentorship, and the valuable discussions that happen between mentor and mentee, can and should start earlier. 

The ACE Mentor Program is a design and construction industry-sponsored mentorship program for students at the high school level. Its mission is to “engage, excite and enlighten high school students to pursue careers in architecture, engineering, and construction through mentoring and to support their continued advancement in the industry.

ACE has been around since 1994, and it has developed an impressive network of 62 partner affiliates in 32 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. It’s a private sector solution that serves around 8,000 students with about 2,500 mentors each year through a 15-session, 40-hour after-school program.

“Our end game is to seek out high school students who have a desire to learn more about architecture, design and construction management,” says Jack Tipton, director of regional programs (southeast) at the ACE Mentor Program. “We want to help them make that big decision about post-secondary education.”

ACE links up high schools that want to participate with a team of four to five mentors that come to the school for about two hours every other week for 15 weeks. The organization pays special attention to underserved students and areas.

“When students start ACE, they don’t know how long it takes to become a licensed architect, what it takes to become a licensed engineer, what types of jobs are available in construction,” noted Mr. Tipton.

After giving students, typically a group of 15-20, a day-in-the-life view of the key positions in most design, architecture and construction projects – project leader, architect, engineer, craftsman, etc. – the mentors help their groups of students select a project to complete.

Depending on the students’ initial ability level, the project can be anything from designing a birdhouse for a specific bird species to developing an entire city. ACE projects are diverse – a school in downtown Miami; a bridge in Jacksonville, FL; infrastructure plans for a world’s fair – you name it. And some ACE affiliate locations choose a theme for the year. For instance, the Nashville, TN, affiliate has declared “gathering” and “water” as past themes for their projects.

“We’ll gauge the ability of the kids and help them find a project that fits those abilities,” said Mr. Tipton. “We want them to be challenged, but not overwhelmed. And we definitely don’t want them to be bored. Sometimes we have to remind mentors that it’s not a competition. It’s about helping kids grow their interest and learn through the project.”

Through these after-school sessions, mentors guide their students through completion of their chosen project. At the end of the ACE year, an annual banquet allows student teams to present their projects to the larger ACE community.

ACE is 100% volunteer led, incurs no cost to schools, and maintains a student-mentor ratio of 3:1.

“We never have a shortage of students. We can only serve students that we have enough mentors for.”

Aside from helping students “learn and grow,” the ACE Mentor Program has a more acute impact on a hot button issue students are facing: the cost of higher education and student debt. When an 18-year-old decides to pursue an architecture degree, and then finds they weren’t prepared for the realities of the work or the long path to licensure, they’re already at a disadvantage.

“Across these industries, there’s a 35% dropout rate,” said Mr. Tipton. “We save kids and their parents a lot of time and dollars by introducing them to these careers at an earlier age.”

ACE recently announced its new collaboration with STEM Premier, “an online platform solution that helps students design a career pathway, educators recruit top talent to their schools, and employers develop a stable, continuous talent pipeline.”

STEM Premier focuses its platform on increasing student pursuit of STEM-related careers – those related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Its new partnership with ACE will let ACE students and alumni showcase themselves and be seen by colleges and companies looking for new talent.

From high school through college, ACE students will be able to use an exclusive ACE portal to “build their own virtual portfolios displaying their academic and technical STEM skills, match up with scholarship opportunities, receive guidance and connect directly with colleges, companies and organizations.” 

“We’re most excited about giving young people a reason to stay in touch with us after their ACE program ends,” said Mr. Tipton. “This is going to increase our ability to help young people. STEM Premier is like LinkedIn on steroids for young people who want to continue to be in our industry. They have a way to keep in contact with our network.”

The STEM Premier collaboration also supplies an added benefit for companies and other organizations that provide mentors.

“Before now, there’s been no concrete return for our supporting companies,” said Mr. Tipton. “Now, our supporting companies and firms that donate their time, effort and dollars will have access to ACE talent. This collaboration will help us attract new companies that can provide new mentors. And universities and companies can now sign up for a STEM Premier account and find young people for open positions at their organizations very quickly.”

The ACE Mentor Program-STEM Premier collaboration is an ingenious intersection between parties that share a mutual goal of increasing STEM talent. These types of mutually beneficial solutions will continue to resolve the talent pipeline challenge.

“We’re a unique program,” said Mr. Tipton. “We provide a service with no motive except to move young people into careers they will love and that they will be successful in. No other organization focuses on this network of industries together like we do.”