This summer, Springer-Peterson experimented by hiring five college students to work in our service, roofing and estimating departments. The program was structured in a manner to provide safety and installation training prior to them getting onto a roof and additional training throughout the summer. The training videos used were from the NRCA Roofing Alliance Library, as provided by our state roofing association, FRSA.
Once assigned with a service foreman or to a roofing crew, the students experienced first hand, the challenges of the trade. Due to heat, height and extreme unpredictable weather conditions, they soon developed a better understanding and the relevance of the roofing industry to our customers and their businesses.
Most of the students worked six days a week throughout the summer and volunteered to be “on call” for late night emergencies and Sundays. While all of our foremen were skeptical at first, most all agree that the students were hard working and reliable, and their contributions had a positive impact on our roofing and service departments.
One student was placed in our estimating department and received the same pre-employment training as the others prior to getting started. Once becoming familiar with our Timberline estimating software, he was then assigned various projects to prepare quantity take offs for our other estimators to complete the actual estimate. This student was also introduced to the other software used by our estimating department, including Aerialogics, Dataforma and Roof Express.
Overall, the entire experimental intern project was a huge success for our company and we are planning to expand the program in 2012, using the students’ ideas and recommendations to assist us in making future experiences even more beneficial to both the students and our company.
Listed are the students that participated, their college or university and selected major:
John Barham – Florida State University – Construction Management
Randall Anderson – Florida State University – Political Science Masters Program
Cole Springer – University of Florida – Building Construction
Mark Vulgamore – North Florida University – Undecided
Kyle Wise – Auburn University – Building Science
Photo #1 – left to right
Kyle Wise, Randall Anerson, Mark Vulgamore, Jon Barham, Cole Springer, Diana King, Greg Farris and Don Springer
Photo #2 – left to right
Kyle Wise, Randall Anerson, Mark Vulgamore, Jon Barham, Cole Springer, Greg Farris, Rob Springer and Don Springer