BATON ROUGE, LA – Sept. 20, 2019: The Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance, Inc. (GBRIA) is pleased to announce the recipients of awards presented at its 12th Annual Craft Workforce Development Awards Banquet held on September 19th at the Marriott Hotel in Baton Rouge, LA. Many high schools, high school educators, post-secondary institutions as well as skilled craft contracting companies and industrial facilities received awards. Tamara Brown, Director of Sustainability and Community Engagement at Praxair, and Tom Yura, Chief Operating Officer at Cornerstone Chemical, shared a few words as a keynote address. Approximately 400 guests attended the event.
The following awards were presented to high schools who were nominated by area contract firms: Cajun Industries, EXCEL, ISC Constructors, MMR Constructors, Trade Construction, Turner Industries, Performance Contractors, Westgate LLC and Worley; and by the industrial plant Occidental Chemical in Convent for demonstrating an outstanding job of implementing career and technical education classes related to construction.
In Division I Student-Body Size Category: West Feliciana High School received the Award of Excellence. Albany High School, Donaldsonville High School, Doyle High School, Holden High School, and Maurepas High School received Awards of Merit.
In the Division II Size; Broadmoor High School, Denham Springs High School, Central High School, and Live Oak High School received the Award of Excellence.
Plaquemine High School, the St. James Career & Technical Center and Zachary High School received Awards of Merit.
In the Division III Size: East Ascension High School and St. Amant High School received the Award of Excellence and Dutchtown High School received an Award of Merit.
One high school craft teacher from each high school division-size received the award of GBRIA High School Craft Workforce Development Champion. Dr. Paul Theriot, West Feliciana High School, received the award for Division I; Billy Doiron, Live Oak High School, received the award for Division II; and Mandy Delaune, St. Amant High School, received the award for Division III.
GBRIA then awarded Post-Secondary Institutions that were nominated by EXCEL, Excel Modular Scaffold, ISC, Performance Contractors, Turner Industries and Worley. Post-Secondary Institutions were divided into two categories: Technical Education and Continuing Education.
In the Post-Secondary Technical Education category, Baton Rouge Community College received the Award of Excellence. The Associated Builders & Contractors – Pelican Chapter and River Parishes Community College received Awards of Merit.
In the Post-Secondary Continuing Education category, LSU Digital and Continuing Education received the Award of Excellence. Alliance Safety Council received the Award of Merit.
Next, the award program recognized industrial construction and maintenance contract companies who demonstrated excellence investing in workforce development programs, which include all of the elements of an excellent program, which are: recruitment, assessment, training, career path development and retention of employees.
The plants that nominated contractors included: BASF, Dow, Eastman Chemical, ExxonMobil Baton Rouge, Honeywell, Occidental Chemical Convent, Occidental Chemical Geismar, REG, Shell Chemical, Shell Refining and W.R. Grace & Co.
The following companies received Craft Workforce Development awards. In the category of General Construction & Maintenance, in the Division I Size Category, Action Industries Inc. and Volks Constructors received Awards of Recognition. In the Division II Size Category, EXCEL received the Award of Excellence. Cajun Industries and Repcon received Awards of Merit. Primoris Services Corporation received an Award of Recognition. For the Division III Size Category, Brown & Root Industrial Services, Turner Industries Group, LLC and Worley earned the Award of
Excellence and the Award of Merit were presented to Performance Contractors and Zachry Group.
In the Civil and Structural Category, in the Division I Size, Barriere Construction Co. received the Award of Recognition. Deep South Crane and Rigging received the Award of Merit.
In the category of Specialty Trade (Soft Craft), in the Division I Size Category, NextGen Scaffold Services received the Award of Recognition. In the Division II Size Category, Excel Modular Scaffold & Leasing earned the Award of Merit.
In the category of Specialty Trade (Hard Craft), in the Division I Size Category, PALA Interstate LLC, Triad Electric & Controls and Westgate, LLC earned the Award of Merit. In the Division II Size Category, ISC Constructors received the Award of Excellence. In the Division III Size Category, MMR Group received the Award of Merit.
In the category of Technical Support, in the Division I Size Category, Clean Harbors and Premium Inspection & Testing Group received Awards of Recognition. In the Division II Size Category, Turner Specialty Services received the Award of Excellence. Acuren Inspections and Total Safety US received Awards of Recognition.
GBRIA also awarded three Best of Division Awards. GBRIA presented this award to a company that ranked best within its division. Deep South Crane and Rigging received the Best of Division I Award. Turner Specialty Services received the Best of Division II Award and Turner Industries Group received the Best of Division III Award.
GBRIA also presented prestigious individual awards to individuals who have exemplified qualities of leadership in workforce development. The following individuals were presented awards as GBRIA Craft Workforce Development Hall of Famers: Lane Grigsby, CEO of Cajun Industries and Eddie Rispone, CEO of ISC Constructors.
Lastly, the award of GBRIA Craft Workforce Development Most Valuable Plant was presented to BASF. BASF has taken 150 high school students through its BASF Tech Academy Program since 2015. This weeklong program, in partnership with RPCC, allows students to visualize a career pathway that starts in high school and finishes through community college or technical training programs. BASF also sponsored teachers an Externship Program, an immersive experience at BASF for teachers to learn about various career pathways.
This year’s
GBRIA Craft Workforce Development
Champion Most Valuable Player award was presented to Jennifer Garcia with Olin, for her outstanding volunteer efforts
with GBRIA.
Pictures of the event will be posted on the Events tab of GBRIA’s website in Event Pictures www.gbria.org. Other links to the evening’s presentations and information on the awards can be found on the News tab.