UFP Industries has a long history of tackling challenges with creative solutions; of bucking the status quo and finding better ways to get things done. That’s exactly the environment in which UFP Business School was born.
As higher education became more unaffordable for American families, and colleges and universities grew programs and mandates that made them money but didn’t necessarily prepare students for business or work, UFP Chairman and CEO Matt Missad decided to do something about it. And in 2016, UFP Business School – an alternative to traditional education – was born.
Ann Baker.
What is UFP Business School?
UFP Business School offers a rigorous two-year program based on a four-year business curriculum, but without the inessentials (Missad calls them “campus-builders”: mandated courses that have no bearing on or relevance to a student’s training and goals, but that make money for the school).
Matt Missad.
The new business school is hosted by UFP Industries, which was founded in 1955 and today is a dynamic, publicly traded corporation (Nasdaq: UFPI) with affiliates around the world, $8 billion in sales, and 16,000 people. Its three business units – UFP Packaging, UFP Retail Solutions and UFP Construction – supply tens of thousands of customers worldwide with products ranging from crating to packaging to trusses and joists and from composite decking to preservative-treated lumber. Importantly, it has maintained a family culture that values innovation, an entrepreneurial spirit and respect for all, and that seeks to provide proper reward for hard work and success.
At UFP Business School, students take 30 business courses that constitute the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Classes are taught by UFP and industry experts. For example, a staff senior corporate attorney teaches risk management and business law, a senior communications lead teaches business writing and Missad teaches a course on entrepreneurship.
Additionally, students get hands-on experience two ways: as interns at corporate offices while they’re taking classes and in a six-week stint each year at operations around the country. With more than 220 facilities worldwide, including nearly 200 in the United States, there are many places to learn.
Critically, UFP Industries provides full scholarships for the students, picks up the cost of all supplies (from laptops to textbooks), and pays students for the work they do in their internships and their on-the-job training.
At the end of two years, UFP Business grads are well-trained and well-educated, have had experiences ranging from production and sales to human resources and product development, have a few dollars in their pockets, and zero debt! These work-ready students also have first crack at open positions at the companies of UFP.
For one student, UFPBS was a “lifesaver”
For Ronald Longfellow, UFP Business School was a life-changing experience. Longfellow is a maintenance technician at UFP’s idX operation in Fredericksburg, VA, a job he came upon after serving in the military and hitting a few bumps after discharge. Shortly after he joined UFP, he learned about the company’s business school, was accepted into the school, and applied himself to his studies. It was the first time he had to balance so much – full-time employment and full-time studies – but he was determined and got the support he needed.
“I’ve never been helped like that,” Longfellow said. “I’ve never been shown the respect and gratitude that I have at UFP and in the school.
“I studied hard and every single day I was coming home with more and more knowledge,” he added. “When I’d hear someone talk about a capital expenditure or why we didn’t hire someone, I’d understand the reasons; the big picture.”
Even the personal finance class had an impact on Longfellow’s life and career, helping him boost his credit score and figure out what he needed to do to enhance his future.
“That’s all I ever really needed in life – to be accepted and to have an opportunity to work my way up.”
Many benefits to the organization
Today, UFPBS graduates are making their way through the UFP organization and up the ladders of success. And the companies of UFP are embracing the program.
“If we mean it when we say that our number-one asset is our people, then we have to take time to develop people and create a runway for them that best suits their needs and our operations, and the business school is one way we do that,” said Sean Simmer, a vice president of operations at UFP Industries.
“We look at each person and instead of trying to figure out how to fit them into a box, we look at their strengths and weaknesses to figure out how they can be most impactful in this organization—and then we work to create a development plan and path for them. It’s part of what we look at when we’re considering students for the school.
And a byproduct is trust – when you develop a plan for someone, you develop a tremendous amount of trust and loyalty.”
Simmer has hired several business school graduates at his UFP operations, including one who is a sales trainee at Atlantic Prefab, a UFP Site Built operation that is a leading manufacturer of steel wall panels and light metal trusses in New England, and one who is a production management trainee at the brand-new operation in Chicopee, MA, UFP’s largest site-built plant.
Occasionally, he hires people and simultaneously enrolls them in the UFP Business School. “It’s an investment for us, but we’re getting skilled, well-educated employees who will be with us for the long-term,” Simmer said.
Simmer often speaks to groups of students at colleges and universities about business and job opportunities. “A lot of kids come out of school with six-figure debts and expect six-figure incomes to pay them off, and that comes with a lot of stress,” he said. Often, these students wish they’d learned about the business school earlier, because it’s tailored to their interests and allows them to graduate debt-free.
On track for growth
UFP Business School graduates can be found in positions of increasing authority around the country, from Chandler, AZ, to Burlingame, NC, and from Windsor, CO, to Belchertown, MA, said UFP Business School Dean Ann Baker.
“It’s rewarding to watch our students learn and develop and then start on paths to exciting careers,” she said. “Today, our UFP Business School graduates thrive in positions across UFP from sales to production, and design to plant management. It’s a testament to innovation in education and the hard work of everyone involved.”
Unencumbered by the regulatory environment that infects other institutions and held accountable by outcomes and conduct, UFP Business School is making a name for itself outside of traditional paths and its students are making names for themselves throughout the companies of UFP (and elsewhere). And because UFP has a promote-from-within preference, students embark on a path to a bright future at a company that is a leader in its markets.
That, said CEO Missad, is what the school is all about. “We need to hire people who are prepared for work, who are eager to learn and grow and create their own success, and who understand that there are many paths to success that don’t require a four-year degree. We are demonstrating that our internal education processes can be just as effective as traditional schools and much less expensive, and that we can graduate students who have gained knowledge, skills, and strong networks – and no debt.”
For more information, visit www.ufpbusinessschool.com.
