Who we are

TEACH Construction Initiative was conceived by Michael Smith during his tenure as Director of the Colorado Homebuilding Academy (now the Build Strong Academy). As the Academy’s success grew, industry observers began asking for their “secret sauce.” Michael’s response was always simple: there is no secret—we will share everything we have.

That collaborative mindset evolved into a concrete idea, which eventually became the product known as TEACH. Originally an acronym for Technical Education Assistance for Careers in Homebuilding*, the name has since transitioned; while we no longer use the full acronym, we continue to capitalize “TEACH” to honor its origins.

Growth and Evolution

In August 2018, Michael left the Academy to focus exclusively on expanding the initiative’s reach. He founded the social enterprise Building Workforce Solutions, L3C, with TEACH serving as a core division. Shortly thereafter, Michael recruited Joe to join the team as a partner, and the rest is history—a history you can follow firsthand on our YouTube channel.

Our Mission

In addition to supporting schools, colleges, and work-based learning programs, TEACH is dedicated to building industry partnerships that fuel the growth of our training resources. It is important to note that TEACH Construction focuses specifically on creating curriculum and instructional resources for basic-to-intermediate construction skills. While there are many excellent apprenticeship and specialty training programs already doing great work, we are not looking to replace them. Instead, we are filling a critical void: the lack of high-quality, affordable training tools for those entering the trades. By addressing this gap, we aim to make foundational trade education accessible to everyone.

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