Mobile, Ala., — Bishop State Community College, in partnership with the City of Mobile, is offering a new curriculum called the “Contractor's College: Project Management and Crew Leadership” aimed at helping small businesses compete for, receive, and manage public contracts.
The program covers basic leadership skills and explains different leadership styles, communications, delegating, and problem-solving. It will also cover job-site safety and the role that crew leaders play in ensuring the safety of their team members. This program is designed to assist contractors as well as people interested in contracting, recently promoted crew leaders, and anyone else in management.
"It is important for Bishop State to partner with the City of Mobile to provide the Contractor's College," Bishop State President Dr. Reggie Sykes said. "It ensures the small and disadvantaged businesses in our community are provided the information needed to help them sustain and grow their businesses. Through this program, they will learn the management side of contracting so they can successfully and confidently bid for contracts locally and beyond.”
The City of Mobile is using federally allocated funds to make the Contractor’s College programming available to small business owners from Mobile, which will allow them to become certified through the National Center for Construction Education and Research. (NCCER). That type of certification can go a long way when bidding on public contracts and can also help qualified small businesses that received micro-loans through the City of Mobile receive the training necessary to convert those loans into grants.
“There has never been more work happening in the City of Mobile, and we are committed to growing participation from Disadvantaged Business Enterprises to meet the demands of our engineering, architectural engineering, and community housing development departments,” Mayor Sandy Stimpson said. “This partnership Bishop State’s Contractor’s College will help grow our existing DBE program so that we can find those qualified, local contractors to meet the growing needs of the City.”
Some of the curriculum topics in the Contractor’s College program include safety, issues and resolutions, construction documents, estimating and cost control, scheduling, and quality control, among others.
Contractor's College: Project Management will begin on Tuesday, July 20, 2021, and will run until January 27, 2022. Around 20 participants from various businesses will be able to attend during the first class, and scholarships are available to cover the cost of tuition. To apply, you can visit Bishop State's website at https://www.bishop.edu/programs/workforce-development/contractors-college
