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David Deancey’s father worked in construction, but said he never saw it as a race for him, calling it “hard and out of work.”
He attended the University of Southern Florida in a basketball scholarship, before pursuing a race in the administrative part of the construction industry in the management of the city. It wasn’t until his brother studied construction management at Florida A&M University that Deancey rethink his career.
“We started talking more about this and he was like” Look, man, is a part of us, you know? You also grew there, why don’t you look back? “, Said Deancey.
One day came one day, in 2004, two decades later, Deancey returned to USF to see his Tampa company, based in Florida, specializing in parking and construction of parks could improve studying in the Building Blocks program management of Skanska construction.
Skanska USA started the Building Blocks program in 2007 to help smaller and diverse companies grow and manage business challenges, but also to find opportunities to work and with older companies, according to Tracy Hunt, CEO of Florida’s Skanska’s operations. The US arm of the Sweden contractor has been united with USF since 2021.
The free and several weeks courses cover various topics, including contracting methods, insurance bonuses, security requirements and sustainability, said Hunt. Skanska employees teach human resources or logistics in the site, for example.
Ideally, the program also forge an association that both Skanska and the company can take advantage of.
“Ultimately, the goal is that we want to enter -and certainly, we want them to start working for us, but if they can go out and have a job with us and the work that goes with five of our competitors, then the growing community, right?” Hunt said.
Since 2007, the Building Blocks program has educated about 800 companies and has brought about $ 740 million in contracts with Skanska, said Hunt.
Building a future
One day he arrived is one of those companies that goes to work with Skanska. The two companies have entered the pre-construction phase in elementary school Just Elementary and Stewart Middle School in Hillsborough County, Florida, an existing campus that is demolished and rebuilt in a new $ 70 million school, said Deancey.
“I went into this program and learned immediately that I would learn a lot,” said Deancey. “Small businesses, we are in our space, we are in our lane, but we know that there are other things that we can learn to improve, to work a little faster, to work a little more efficient, to improve our customers.”
Deancey described the elementary school project as the greatest opportunity of his company in twenty years, as he has worked on a continued employment contract with Hillsborough county in other education projects.
“My confidence with this business has gone through the roof due to the resources Skaska has for me, as a mentor, has only changed a lot to me,” said Deancey. “It has changed everything to me when it comes to this business.”
