Finding enough talented construction workers to replace an aging workforce has been an issue in Northern Nevada for more than a decade.
The regional boom in industrial employment over the last 10 years has also exacerbated workforce issues in the construction industry as younger workers eschew the hardships of working outside in Northern Nevada’s frigid winter and blistering summer months in favor of the cozy confines of temperature-controlled warehouses.
Q&D Construction, one of the region’s largest general contracting companies, has taken workforce development matters internally with the creation of the N.L. Dianda Skills Academy and training center at Mustang.
Lance Semenko, chief executive officer at Q&D, told NNBW that the company spent more than $2 million on training initiatives and employee training in 2024.
“We realized years ago that we didn’t have a whole lot of apprentices, and the ones we did have were not properly trained,” Semenko said. “We saw that their training was going to fall onto us.”
Seasonal employment at Q&D construction runs as high as 750 employees, Semenko said. Creation of the N.L. Dianda Skills Academy not only helps novice employees gain the skills necessary to better perform work in the field, but it also allows seasoned veterans to instruct apprentices in the culture and methods of Q&D Construction, he added. Trainers are either current or retired Q&D employees who were brought back into the workforce specifically to spearhead training programs and share their decades of hard-earned knowledge.
Instead of showing up at a jobsite in the mornings, apprentices and others interested in upskilling show up to the Dianda skills academy and put in a shift there. They are paid regular time just as if they had performed their duties at a jobsite.
“In order to make sure our industry is successful down the road, we all have to do our part to make sure training moves forward, not only for the company but also for the employee,” Semenko said. “We know there’s no guarantee that the employee is going to stay at Q&D, but we hope they do.”
Eva Werschky, Q&D’s training and outreach director, spearheads company-wide training initiatives and scheduling. Werschky started at Q&D Construction four years ago in dispatch before Semenko tabbed her to run the company’s training programs.
Training at the skills center includes plan and grade-stake reading, concrete placement, excavation and shoring, forklift and aerial lift safety, and loader and excavator training in both standard and difficult situations, such as grading on slopes.
“It’s taking guys who know how to run equipment to the next level in a safe environment,” Werschky said.
Apprentices hail from Southwest Carpenters Local 971, Operating Engineers Local 3, Operative Plasterers & Cement Masons Local 797, and Laborers International Union Local 169. The training provided by Q&D counts toward required apprenticeship hours for all unions except for Carpenters Local 971, which refused to recognize Q&D’s experts as qualified apprenticeship trainers, Semenko said.
“All the other unions bought into it,” he said. “It’s so archaic, but that’s typical in this day and age.”
Q&D has about 65 apprentices who meet quarterly with company leaders to discuss what they like and don’t like about working at Q&D and in the construction industry as a whole. It’s an open forum to talk about what novices need to succeed in the industry and at Q&D, Semenko said.
“We are doing this to help them, which in turn helps us,” he said.
Added Werschky: “They realize what we are doing as a company and the culture we are bringing them up in that it’s OK to ask questions. We encourage them to be participants in the job and not just keep their heads down and do their work.”
The N.L. Dianda Skills Academy honors Q&D founder Norm Dianda, who died in 2021. He co-founded Q&D Construction in 1964. The skills center sits on the former home of Wild West Motorsports Park, a popular dirt-track racing venue that ran for nine years but closed in April 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s an invaluable piece of land for Q&D in multiple ways. Dirt from jobs that can’t be reused on site is taken there, and it’s where Q&D has its concrete recycling and slurry press operations, as well as parking for hundreds of pieces of heavy machinery.
The skills academy isn’t only for apprentices and novice employees, Werschky noted. Anyone who desires to enhance their construction skills is welcome to sign up for training classes. In the early stages, employees often required some gentle nudging, but now employees are signing up for training classes on their own, she said.
Employees who receive training are able to perform field work they previously weren’t capable of, Werschky noted, and equally importantly, it provides an opportunity for industry veterans to assess the work ethic and initiative of apprentices.
“It’s pretty easy to tell who has the drive,” Semenko said.
In addition to the N.L. Dianda Skills Academy, Q&D last year purchased two Cat Simulators that are located at its headquarters on 21st Street. The simulators mimic the operation of a Caterpillar loader or an excavator so novices can polish their skills, oftentimes during slow winter months. Q&D also offers English speaking classes, and more than two-dozen employees attend classes twice a week to polish their English-speaking skills, Werschky said.
Semenko said the holistic approach to employee training has helped Q&D gain and retain the talent necessary to better complete field work.
“Without Eva’s help and the trainers out in the field, this program wouldn’t be working as well as it is,” he said. “If every company in town did this, it would help the whole construction industry.”
Original Article: Northern Nevada Business Weekly. By: Rob Sabo. https://www.nnbw.com/news/2025/may/07/qd-construction-creates-the-nl-dianda-skills-academy-and-training-center/
