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Female U.S. Veterans Pursue Careers in Housing

At “Ask the Expert” sessions in Clarksville, Knoxville, Nashville and Chattanooga, women builders, developers, mortgage lenders, designers and tradespersons are encouraging veterans to pursue non-traditional career paths in occupations in the state’s housing industry where there are shortages. These include the trades, technical supervision, design, administration and sales.

HBA of Middle Tennessee member Tonya Jones, of Mark IV Enterprises, a woman-owned commercial contracting firm in Nashville, said that she is participating in the program to help inform candidates about the types of jobs that are available, where they can be found and how to succeed in them. “This can sometimes be a mystery to those outside our industry,” she said.

There are some 4,500 members of Tennessee’s home building industry and they represent 20,000 jobs.

This week’s sessions are part of “Doors to Success,” a program of the Home Builders Institute, the work force development arm of NAHB, to help alleviate the industry’s worker shortage by helping female veterans find careers in home building.

Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor Veterans Employment and Training Service, the program features a national Web-based job bank, a new local job bank sponsored by the HBA of Tennessee, job development and placement assistance, mentors, referrals to training and apprenticeship programs and a toll free telephone number in Tennessee and Kentucky, 866-HIREVET (866-447-3838).

For more information about the "Doors to Success" program, click here or contact Laura Ivey at HBI at 800-795-7955 x8917.

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