Make Craft Training Work on the Jobsite

That matters because the case for training is much stronger than a general promise to “develop your people.” NCCER’s From Training to Performance research project examined the return on craft training using data from more than 1,400 craft professionals and nearly 200 employers. Across the research, companies that provide training reported better performance on productivity, rework, proficiency, retention and other measures that directly affect the way projects run.

The opportunity for contractors is not simply to provide more training. It is to make good training easier to use: focused on the skills the work requires, available when the crew can realistically complete it and connected to supervised field application. That is especially important for contractors that do not have a training department, a dedicated facility or enough spare labor to send people away for weeks at a time.

Training has measurable business value

NCCER’s 2023 company survey found that organizations providing craft training achieved their labor productivity estimates an average of 65.4% of the time, compared with 52.7% for companies that did not provide training. The same survey found lower average rework among companies that trained: 18.9% of project time versus 21.8% among companies that did not.

The 2024 phase of the research showed a similarly consistent pattern in how employers viewed training’s impact. Ninety-six percent of respondents said formal craft training had at least some positive impact on productivity, 84% reported a positive impact on retention and 77% reported a positive impact on safety. Nearly 70% said training helped reduce turnover.

Speed matters too. More than 80% of respondents said formally trained craft professionals reached standard productivity six to 18 months faster than workers developing only through on-the-job methods. And when employers were asked when they expected to see a return on their craft training investment, more than 60% anticipated that return within 18 months or less.

These findings are not a guarantee that every training program produces the same result; the study relies heavily on employer and worker surveys and observed differences between companies that train and those that do not. But the direction is difficult to ignore. Training is connected to the exact outcomes contractors watch every day: labor productivity, rework, readiness, retention and the amount of supervision a crew requires.

The barrier is often delivery, not value

NCCER’s research also explains why the benefits of training can remain out of reach. Among craft professionals with zero to four years of experience, “training is not available” was the most frequently cited barrier. Focus group participants also described training that conflicted with work schedules, required travel or meant pulling high-performing workers away from a project for one, two or even three weeks.

The report points to the same problems contractors recognize immediately: heavy workloads, limited budgets, employees spread across different locations and job responsibilities that make fixed classroom schedules difficult. For a large contractor with a training center and full-time instructors, those problems may be manageable. For a smaller company running several active projects, they can stop training before it starts.

That does not mean classroom instruction, apprenticeship or comprehensive craft programs are less important. Those pathways remain essential when the goal is full craft development, required related instruction or hands-on training that needs a controlled environment. The gap is different: contractors also need a practical way to provide structured, targeted learning when traditional delivery logistics do not fit the immediate need.

Bring structured learning closer to the work

The same NCCER research points toward a more flexible model. Its review of computer-based and self-paced learning notes that digital delivery can standardize instruction across locations, let learners work at their own pace and reduce the need for in-person delivery. The report also recommends mobile-accessible training and emphasizes the value of connecting technical instruction with hands-on field experience.

• CraftPro by NCCER was built around those needs. The platform provides self-paced, mobile-friendly craft courses that employees can access on a phone, tablet or computer. Contractors can make training available on the jobsite, in the trailer, during onboarding or wherever it fits the schedule without requiring a live instructor for every lesson. Expert-led videos are available in English and Spanish, with interactive activities and knowledge testing built into the courses.

Online access is only part of the answer. Craft skills still have to show up in the field. Many CraftPro courses include hands-on performance tasks that allow an employer to connect the technical lesson to supervised practice and evaluation on the jobsite. That combination reflects the broader principle in NCCER’s research: strong craft development pairs structured instruction with real experience rather than relying on either one alone.

Start with the skill gap, not a full program

Smaller contractors do not always need to launch a companywide training initiative to get value from workforce development. A more practical starting point is the work in front of them. What skill is slowing an upcoming scope? Where is a new hire missing foundational knowledge? Which experienced craft professional is ready for the next capability? Where could one additional qualified person give a superintendent or foreman more options?

CraftPro lets an administrator build personalized learning paths around those answers. Courses can be selected across multiple crafts, tied to a worker’s role, skill level or project need, and adjusted as the work changes. That makes it possible to train one employee differently from another instead of sending an entire crew through the same long sequence simply because that is the program that happens to be available.

Just-in-time should not mean unstructured. The goal is to identify a need before it becomes a problem, assign the right learning, give the employee realistic time to complete it, connect the lesson to field practice and track progress. Over time, that turns training from an occasional event into a repeatable part of how a contractor prepares people for the next project requirement.

Multiskilling is one place this flexibility helps

Multiskilling is one useful example, not the main case for training. Simplar Foundation conducted a study of 644 workers in 60 multiskilled crews across 36 projects. In a modeled comparison, qualified cross-tasking increased direct-work time and reduced idle time, especially where related scopes had frequent handoffs.

The practical takeaway is narrow but clear: selected adjacent capabilities can create flexibility when the work, qualifications and worker are a good fit.

CraftPro can support that use case by letting contractors assign a specific set of skills, pair them with practice and evaluation, and verify capability before the actual work is assigned. But multiskilling is only one application; onboarding, upskilling, skill-gap closure and preparation for new projects are broader uses.

Make training practical before the need is urgent

Taken together, NCCER’s findings tell an important story.

• Training is associated with meaningful business benefits.
• The industry still struggles to make training consistently available.

For smaller contractors, the second piece can keep them from ever reaching the first. The answer is not to lower the standard. It is to remove as much friction as possible from how structured learning is assigned, accessed and aligned to the actual work.

A contractor can start with one recurring need. Choose the people who need the skill. Assign focused instruction. Give them a realistic window to complete it around the work. Pair it with supervised practice or evaluation. Then look at what changed: Did they get up to speed faster? Is the supervisor spending less time correcting the same issue? Is the crew better prepared for the next scope? Use those answers to decide what to build next.

Great projects still depend on great craft professionals, and developing them still requires time, practice and strong supervision. CraftPro does not replace those fundamentals. It gives contractors another way to make trusted, structured craft training available when and where the work allows it—so a company does not need a full training department before it can start investing in the skills that move the business forward.

Explore CraftPro to see how flexible, targeted training can support your workforce.

1 Source: Simplar Foundation, Multiskilling in the U.S. Construction Industry, Volume 1 (2026). Field observations from 36 projects across 24 states and 11,407 work-sampling observations.