ARLINGTON, VA - By making apartment maintenance training available to Maryland’s unemployed or underemployed—as well as non-native English speakers—Montgomery College’s Ed Roberts has helped over 200 people prepare for well-paying jobs in the apartment industry, earning him recognition by the National Apartment Association Education Institute (NAAEI) with its 2015 Apartment Career and Education (ACE) Award.
“Ed has helped us extend the reach of our Certificate for Apartment Maintenance Technicians (CAMT), program by taking it to those members of our workforce who need it the most,” said NAAEI President Diana Pittro, ARM. “He played a key role in making the CAMT a part of the Maryland Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (MI-BEST) program that targets low-income adults in the Washington, D.C.-Montgomery County region. These adults often have a hard time securing well-paying jobs because of a lack of experience or difficulty speaking English.”
As dean of Applied Technologies and the Gudelsky Institute for Technical Education at Montgomery College, Roberts also helped make CAMT training a standard offering available through the college’s continuing education program and its workforce development division. He was one of the first educators to recognize the growing need of the apartment industry in the Washington, D.C., metro area to fill maintenance positions with qualified applicants.
“Ed has been committed to the success of the CAMT program since its inception at the college and an advocate for careers in the apartment industry,” NAAEI Executive Vice President Maureen Lambe, CAE, said. “He truly understands the value of industry-based training and credentials and has the great ability to create local and national partnerships and develop a talented team of internal staff highly capable of seeing his vision through to success.”
Together with NAAEI and a handful of local and national companies, she said, Roberts developed a model that provides the students with the technical training needed to be a successful maintenance technician and sets graduates on a path for advancement in the residential property management industry. She also credits Roberts with leveraging local resources to help prepare students for the rigors of assembling a resume, interviewing for a job and following up with potential employers.
For his leadership, Roberts was recognized as part of the 2015 NAA Education Conference and Exposition on June 27 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Convention Center. The NAAEI Apartment Career and Education (ACE) Awards recognize outstanding achievement in the field of apartment career development. The ACE Awards are given annually and are awarded to both volunteer leaders and professional educators.
About the National Apartment Association Education Institute (NAAEI)
The National Apartment Association Education Institute (NAAEI) is the education arm of the National Apartment Association. The mission of the NAAEI is to provide broad-based education, training and recruitment programs that attract, nurture and retain high-quality professionals and develop tomorrow’s apartment industry leaders. For more information, please visit www.naahq.org/education or www.rpmcareers.org.