Workforce Under Construction

Most of us can remember at least one favorite teacher that helped make learning fun and relevant. For construction craft trainees at the Cianbro Institute, Pittsfield, Maine, that teacher might very well be Anthony Ayotte.

Anthony recently was named Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Craft Instructor of the Year. If you listen to Edward LePage, the Mechanical Craft Training Coordinator for the Cianbro Institute, it’s clear why he was the right choice.

“Someone trained and mentored him, so I think it’s a way of him paying it forward, giving others the same opportunities that he was afforded,” he wrote in Anthony’s nomination form.

And Anthony had no trouble taking advantage of the opportunities he was afforded. Starting as one of Edward’s pipefitters students in 1988, Anthony became an expert in his field before joining the Cianbro Institute in 2007 as the Pipefitter Training Coordinator.

“He uses himself as an example of what can be accomplished if students are willing to listen to instructions in the classroom and put those same instructions to use when they are working in the field,” Edward said.

He is an NCCER-certified trainer for Pipefitting Core curriculum, is Certified Plus as an industrial pipefitter, a master craft instructor in pipefitting and an assessment administrator, as well as an OSHA outreach trainer having completed the OSHA 30-hour Outreach.

Each year for the past six years, Anthony has participated in the ABC Maine Chapter Craft Championships by running the pipefitting competition and explaining what the contestants were doing to vocational high school students that attended. He attends job fairs for vocational high school students in Connecticut and has participated in SkillsUSA by judging the local competition.

Anthony is an asset to our industry – but he is only one of many dedicated construction craft trainers throughout the country.

Here are five other outstanding examples who also were finalists for the award.

• Kevin M. Garrett, Electrical Instructor, LCS Constructors, Inc., Irvine, Calif.
• Aaron Jones, Sprinkler Fitter Instructor, Universal Fire Systems, Inc., Tampa, Fla.
• Alberto Sandoval, Plumbing Instructor, TDIndustries, Inc., Dallas
• Rudy Stanovich, Pipefitting Instructor, MTech Mechanical Technologies Group, Denver
• Alton Vrana, Electrical Instructor, IES Commercial, Baton Rouge, La.

ABC National Chairman Greg Hoberock presents Anthony with his award.