Education and Training
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Education and Training
2007: A Year in Training
An educated workforce is critical to any industry. New education
and training opportunities have made 2007 an important year for
masonry, with programs for students and professors, designers and
other specifiers, inspectors, and craftworkers.
Masonry continues to be a desirable building material, creating
aesthetically pleasing, long-lasting structures that function well.
Awareness is an important first step in getting people to specify
and build with masonry, and informing students about the material
raises awareness. Designers have to be able to create efficient
buildings with good details, so they need the knowledge to develop
workable plans and specifications. Craftworkers have to be able
to place the structure, making it function safely and look good.
Inspectors serve as a check on the builder, so they must understand
the design to make certain that it is assembled as intended.
Education and training is required for every part of the team.
The following articles highlight important industry events. From
individual study to classroom settings and hands-on training, many
of these programs are jointly sponsored by industry organizations.
Educating Students and Professors:
Web Sites and Workshops
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| Arch test setup: the arch is used to demonstrate
important concepts about masonry’s behavior |
Exposing students to masonry early in their careers builds familiarity
with and interest in the material. As they learn about the capabilities
of masonry and its benefits to structures, they are more likely to
work with it as designers. University professors may be knowledgable
of masonry’s general aesthetic qualities, but are often unaware
of masonry as a structural material; they, too, require education.
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| Student at U. of Wyoming measuring stresses
in a masonry wall with the flatjack instrument. |
Today’s students are tomorrow’s practitioners. The
University of Wyoming has developed a program they call a “virtual
masonry training lab.” Cosponsored by PCA and other industry
groups, the program addresses the study of masonry construction,
behavior, and testing. The core of the program is a series of modules
on the TMS
Web site. It teaches professors how to create lab experiments
if they have facilities to do the work, or if they are short on
lab space or equipment, allows them an opportunity to demonstrate
important concepts on material behavior and testing techniques.
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| A professor attending the University Professors’
Masonry Workshop takes tips on mortaring a brick from a local
mason. |
The Masonry Society (TMS) surveys of college curricula continually
identify that students receive little class time devoted to masonry.
To address this deficiency, TMS created an outreach activity named
the University
Professors Masonry Workshop. Since 1988, TMS has conducted an
annual UPMW, offering tracks in engineering, architecture, and more
recently, construction management. This is a “train the trainer”
activity with both immediate and long-term benefits. Along with a
host school and masonry industry groups, TMS invites college professors
to a 2-1/2 day program.
Educating Inspectors and
Designers: A Traveling Seminar
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| Structural masonry special inspection: a new
training program from TMS is designed to teach attendees how
to inspect masonry construction. |
While masonry walls are straightforward, building them involves various
trades and the system can be complex. And because masonry is constructed
at the jobsite, it is subject to effects of hot and cold weather.
Inspectors are therefore an important part of the team that puts quality
masonry buildings in place. They need to know not just what to look
at but how materials and assemblies should perform.
There is a new training program from The
Masonry Society (TMS) that teaches the special inspection of
masonry. It is primarily geared toward inspectors, but designers
and others masonry personnel can benefit from the training, learning
what will be observed during construction. More.
Educating Masons and Would-Be
Masons: A New Training Center with “Masonry Camp”
New masons traditionally go through apprenticeship programs—they
learn on the job from experienced masons. Supplementing this well
established industry practice, the International Masonry Institute
(IMI) has gone a step further, creating a brand new national training
center for instructing craftworkers in all aspects of masonry construction.
Located in Bowie, Md., the facility was dedicated in mid-2007 as
the John
J. Flynn BAC/IMI International Training Center to honor International
Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers president and IMI co-chair.
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| Young masons and architecture students interact
at masonry camp. |
With its new training center, IMI continues to host a popular program,
which started more than a decade ago. It’s called Masonry
Camp: Creating a Craft/Architecture Partnership. As the name implies,
it brings together young architects and masonry craftworkers to foster
collaboration between designers and builders. The two groups change
roles with each other, thereby gaining a better understanding and
appreciation of the other’s needs and challenges. Architects
see how their plans translate to the real world—or don’t—and
masons learn about the role of every element specified in a wall.
Each year, both groups come away with more respect for the other.
 This
cross-training is not only enlightening, attendees say it is a lot
of fun. And it appears to be an effective way of improving the quality
of masonry design and construction in young and old practitioners,
an investment in the future of good masonry. For more than a decade
now, students have been attending the camp and 2007 marked its first
year in its new home at the IMI International Training Center.
Celebrating Young Masons
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| Josh Stewart of New York works on his SkillsUSA
project during the June 2007 competition in Kansas City, Mo. |
SkillsUSA offers yet another aspect of education and training activities
in the U.S. Geared toward all trades and vocations, the Skills Program
tops off its year with a national competition each year in Kansas
City, Mo. in June. Secondary and post-secondary students attend a
luncheon and take a written test on the first day, then construct
a brick-and-block project on the second day to demonstrate their masonry
skills and workmanship. The top three finishers in each group are
awarded prizes. More.
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