Leveling up MCA’s education offerings

By Emma Peterson. 

From manuals and white papers to demos and webinars, MCA is helping industry professionals access information in a variety of ways. 

Education and training are foundational parts of the construction industry. Jeff Henry, the executive director of the Metal Contractors Association (MCA) stopped by to talk to The Coffee Shops about how MCA is building opportunities for professionals in the industry to learn about how metal can work for them. He explained a few of the related initiatives they’re focusing on this year, sharing, “We have a large campaign that focuses on reaching out to the design community and specifiers to inform them of the opportunities to use metal in their projects and to educate them on, what we believe is the material of choice for the building envelope.” All of these initiatives build on the strong background of resources MCA has had, including over 80 white papers and technical bulletins, which inform, provide guidance and convey best practices on a wide range of issues.   

One of the ways MCA is reaching these campaign goals is through the hosting of extensive educational programming for contractors. Jeff explained a bit of what this looks like, saying, “We had demonstrations at last year's International Roofing Expo (IRE). We'll keep doing more demonstrations,  MCA will be doing hands-on demos at METALCON this year.” These demos are a great opportunity to learn firsthand and improve your work, as proper installation is critical to ensuring the long term performance of the metal roofing system. To further help contractors learn these best practices, MCA is developing and updating online-accessible installation manuals. Jeff explained, “We have also updated our roof installation manual that's available online... We continue to expand the number of resources that are available which deal with installation. We have a wall manual that's in the development process.” These manuals are all publicly available and accessible opportunities for contractors and other professionals in the industry to keep up with evolving building codes and best practice.  

MCA  also supports the monthly METALCON Online webinar series and has recently launched an additional offering for members and member prospects. This builds upon their existing resources and offers their members interactive learning opportunities. With the goal to have at least one webinar per quarter, Jeff explained the logic of using this form of communication, saying, “Webinars offer tons of opportunities and are more dynamic, which allows us to make the content more engaging than if we were just sending emails. It also has the opportunity for greater reach than an in-person event.” Just this September, they hosted a webinar on sustainability that featured MCA's Technical Director Bob Zabcik and The Aluminum Association's Senior Manager of Sustainability Programs Marshall Wang. During the hour-long session, the duo discussed the role of metal in sustainable construction and shared innovative solutions and best practices with the attendees. 

You can access past webinar information and learn about future webinars on the MCA website!