Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} The Greater Pennsylvania Regional Council of Carpenters represents 9,000 active members and more than 1,000 apprentices across 60 counties in the state, everywhere except municipal Philadelphia. With a workforce averaging 42 years of age, many journeymen are in need of skills upgrading in new construction technologies. And 300 new apprentices each year require rigorous mentoring and instruction. Fulfilling these needs is complicated by the need to replenish retiring workers across seven different job classifications as diverse as bridge construction, pile driving and the millwright craft.   The Carpenters answered these challenges with a $14 million training center just a short ride outside of downtown Pittsburgh.    “It’s an absolute honor to be chosen for this project that will shape the future of our union,” said Victor Maga, superintendent of the building division for Mosites Construction, showing off  progress on the 46,000 square foot facility.   The center’s roof is high enough to accommodate the simulated construction of a home, scaffold building and training in tilt-up concrete walls.  Tilt-up—a procedure  which has greatly expanded construction productivity—involves pouring concrete walls on a structure’s floor then hoisting them into position using cranes.   Building trade camaraderie isn’t uncommon in Pittsburgh, but it’s palpable and actively rewarded on the new training center project.  Jack Brooks, the regional council’s executive secretary-treasurer, says that the general contractor has been more than open to incorporating ideas that come straight from the ranks into different aspects of the construction.   A construction labor market emerging from all corners of the nation’s workforce lends itself to innovation and new ways of solving problems.   Maga has a master’s degree in aeronautical science that he employed during 15 years in the military before he left and started his own nonunion construction business.  “I spent a lot of time destroying stuff in the Army,” Maga said.  In the trade he can re-create some of the brotherhood he cherished in the service, but now, “I can create rather than destroy.”   One of Maga’s new brothers is Michael Bobnar III, a third-year apprentice and third-generation carpenter.  Bobnar, 29, earned his B.A. in biology at Waynesburg University, and then was certified to teach school. After a brief teaching stint, he decided that working with his hands was the career path he wanted to follow.   Bobnar’s father had some choice profanity when he found out that his namesake was following him into the trade, but Bobnar smiled and said that, underneath the barb, was great pride in his furthering the family tradition of hard, but rewarding work.