Construction Business Management Certificate of Achievement

The Construction Business Management Certificate of Achievement empowers students with the essential knowledge and skills to manage the business components within the construction industry. This certificate focuses on business skills that are unique to construction management and operations. Students may pursue this certificate to better understand construction finance, risk management, resource allocation, cash flow, credit, contracts, and the numerous other details to be a successful construction business professional. This certificate can lead to employment in various occupations such as, but not limited to, office manager, records administrator, estimator, and contracts manager.

The Construction Business Management Certificate of Achievement is projected to have an increased enrollment of 10-15 students/year with 8-12 completing the certificate annually with future exponential growth.

Cabrillo College is seeking approval from the Chancellor’s Office for the Construction Business Management Certificate of Achievement in Career Technical Education.  The Construction Business Management Certificate provides the fundamental knowledge to address the business aspects of construction management. The need for this certificate has been advocated for by local general contractors, business owners, speciality trade leaders, union members, non-profit organizations, and community members and supported by current, regional labor market index data (TOP Code 0957.00; CIP Code 52.2001). 

The Construction and Energy Management (CEM) program is aligned with Cabrillo’s mission, master plan, and statewide community college work in Guided Pathways.  Approval of this certificate will benefit local and regional employers, fulfill workforce needs of the local community, augment college enrollment, and support non-traditional and underserved minority students in a viable career and academic path. 

The program objective is to provide students with hands-on learning in construction, energy management, and building inspection. The program gives our students the knowledge and skills they need to qualify for entry-level positions or have a foundation to pursue higher education. This certificate of achievement is designed to be part of a package of stackable certificates for career preparation and provides an opportunity to obtain additional certificates and/or an associate in science degree. 

The potential for a starting salary for Construction Management is  $22.38/hour in the Santa Cruz subregion and $30.49/hour in the Bay Area subregion. This is a baseline starting salary and is variable depending on previous skills and experience in addition to ongoing advancement in employment and education. 

Connecting students to our faculty using experiential learning and knowledge is the cornerstone of our program. It is critical to student learning and landing them employment opportunities by providing them industry insight, career exploration, in addition to the technical and business skills. 

Based on all available Labor Market Index (LMI) data, there appears to be an undersupply of Construction and Energy Management TOP Code 9570.00 compared to the demand for this occupation in the Bay region and in the Santa Cruz-Monterey sub-region (Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz Counties). The annual gap between demand and supply is about 3,101 students in the Bay region and 152 students in the Santa Cruz-Monterey sub-region.  The purpose of our program is to train and certify students to meet the high labor market demand needs in our local and regional areas. 

There are 18.00 required core units in this certification including coursework in the construction and energy management department and a computer course offered in the computer applications and business technology department. 

Course	Title	Units	Year/Semester (Y1 or S1)
CEM154	Construction Estimating	3	S2
CEM157	Construction Law	3	S1
CEM160	Construction and Energy Management	3	S1
CEM161	Construction Business	3	S2
CEM162	Sustainable Construction	3	S1
CABT101	Computer Proficiency	3	S2

he Construction Business Management certificate is part of an interdisciplinary program in the Construction and Energy Management department at Cabrillo College. The majority of core courses are in CEM that share synergy with engineering, e-tech, and welding. The CEM department also collaborates with Computer Applications and Business Technology (CABT) and Counseling/Guidance and features their courses packaged in certificate offerings  This certificate can be a stepping stone for students to pursue other certificates and degrees at community college.  Cabrillo College has collaborated with and received mentoring from successful programs.  We hope to promote construction and energy management to our students and continue to develop strong workforce professionals in this area.   The sequencing of courses is designed to prepare students to be successful when they continue their education or join the workforce at entry level positions. Furthermore, program content and program mapping have been chosen based on student needs.

Hartnell College has an A.S. Degree and one Certificate of Achievement requiring 16 to less than 30 semester units under Top Code 0957.00* Civil and Construction Management Technology. There are no objections from Hartnell College for Cabrillo to offer the Construction Basics Certificate of Achievement.  Clint Cowden, Dean Academic Affairs, Hartnell College was contacted on 3/26/2022 via email and responded the same day that Hartnell College has no objections to Cabrillo submitting the Construction Business Management Certificate of Achievement.