SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 53
(By Senators Hunter, Stollings, Plymale, Unger and Foster)
Requesting the Joint Committee on Government and Finance study
creating a program to prepare military veterans for careers in
construction project scheduling.
Whereas, Construction project scheduling is not offered in
colleges or universities as a major or minor discipline, but is
limited in scope as part of a major course of study, such as
engineering; and
Whereas, Due to a lack of formalized training, schedulers are
difficult to obtain and many major construction companies must
develop their own project schedulers; and
Whereas, With four to six weeks of training, a construction
project scheduler can earn a salary of approximately $40,000 per
year, with significant increases after several years' experience in
today's market; and
Whereas, The first step in creating such a program would be to
develop a facility that recruits and evaluates veterans who express
an interest in becoming a project scheduler; to identify viable
candidates; to formally school them in the most universally
accepted project management software available, such as Primavera
Project Manager; and to provide additional and specialized training
to acquaint veterans with general construction terms and techniques; and
Whereas, Upon completion of this training, veterans would be
issued a laptop computer loaded with the necessary software and
given a living allowance until receipt of several paychecks; and
Whereas, Veterans' services would then be offered to firms and
facilities while remaining in close contact with the veteran's
training facility, which would provide veterans with support during
the first several months of their new employment; and
Whereas, With the right presentation, such companies might be
willing to seize the opportunity to help veterans by financing
training and providing employment in order to bolster their public
image; and
Whereas, West Virginia construction firms would, no doubt, be
willing to assist in the training and placement of veterans as
project schedulers; and
Whereas, Primavera Systems is already willing to negotiate
training and software prices for marketing considerations; and
Whereas, Providing veterans, with priority to wounded
veterans, with the training necessary to become construction
project schedulers would represent an opportunity to provide good-
paying jobs for veterans while becoming a much-needed project-
scheduler resource for the construction industry; therefore, be it
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Joint Committee on Government and Finance is hereby requested to study creating a program to prepare military veterans
for careers in construction project scheduling; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Joint Committee on Government and
Finance report to the regular session of the Legislature, 2008, on
its findings, conclusions and recommendations, together with drafts
of any legislation necessary to effectuate its recommendations;
and, be it
Further Resolved, That the expenses necessary to conduct this
study, to prepare a report and to draft necessary legislation be
paid from legislative appropriations to the Joint Committee on
Government and Finance.