Lab, job market driving eye-popping increase in UW-Platteville construction management enrollment

"It's not like a lecture where you just sit and take notes. You're really getting into it. We do everything." 

- UW-Platteville construction management major Kira Goldbach

Enrollment in UW-Platteville's construction management program has grown nearly sevenfold since its inception thanks to the university's hands-on building laboratory and a wide-open job market. 

In the seven years since the construction management major was created, the number of students has skyrocketed from 60 to 400 this semester, a jaw-dropping increase of 566 percent. Helping drive that growth this year is 140 first-year and transfer students, the largest incoming class yet, said program coordinator Gretchen Bockenhauer.

"This is huge for our program," Bockenhauer said. "If you were to Google construction management, usually Platteville comes to the top."

Prior to 2020, the Department of Applied Engineering Technology Management offered construction management -- the art of supervising residential, commercial and infrastructure projects -- as an emphasis within the industrial technology management degree. Heading into the fall semester that year, the college won approval from the Universities of Wisconsin system to create a standalone bachelor's degree in construction management.

The program attracted 60 students that initial semester, Bockenhauer said. As part of the degree approval process, the department guaranteed enrollment would double to 120 students within five years. 

Mission accomplished, and then some. The program enrolled 280 students heading into fall 2024 and hasn't stopped growing. 

Alumni support, industry partners, word-of-mouth and UW-Platteville's top finishes in national construction competitions all have helped attract students to the program, Bockenhauer said. Perhaps the biggest recruiting draw, though, is the university's construction lab.

Located off campus adjacent to Pioneer Farm, the university's working farm, the lab offers students hands-on experience building a two-story commercial structure and a stretch of highway. The work challenges students to apply what they've learned in class, including surveying, utility installation, on-site communication, understanding weather conditions and meeting deadlines. 

"It's like a giant erector set," Bockenhauer said. "We build it, enclose it, make it like a building and then tear it down so the next round of students can do the same thing." 

For Kira Goldbach of Mukwonago, Wisconsin, the construction lab sealed her decision to attend UW-Platteville in 2023. The lab offered hands-on learning and real-world experience with industry-standard equipment that's not available at other UW schools, she said.

"I was like, 'whoa, this is so cool,'" Goldbach said during a break from helping her classmates grade a 110-foot section of road at the lab on a recent September afternoon. "(Other schools) didn't have the hands-on. Here you're always up on your feet, running around in the mud. I just thought it was so interesting."

The program is catapulting graduates into jobs as the construction industry continues to struggle to find skilled labor. A November 2025 report from accounting firm Deloitte projected that the engineering and construction industry needs nearly half a million new workers in 2026 to keep up with demand. The labor shortage is expected to only grow, with 41 percent of construction workers expected to retire within the next five years and only 10 percent of current workers under age 25, the analysis found. 

More than 100 companies currently recruit from the UW-Platteville program, Bockenhauer said, and every student in the last two graduating classes has found a job. Starting salaries average about $66,466, according to the Department of Applied Engineering Technology Management.

Holtz Builders Inc., a contractor headquartered in Lake Delton, Wisconsin, has hired three UW-Platteville construction management graduates over the last five years, said Mark Crowley, the company's Midwest president. Crowley is a UW-Platteville alumnus himself; he holds a bachelor's degree in industrial technology management with an emphasis in construction management. 

"(Pioneer graduates) have come out of the program with strong construction skills and an ability to navigate real industry challenges," he said. "This program produces well-rounded young professionals prepared for continued growth and leadership opportunities as they take the next step in their careers. Because of this, HBI is always eager to see candidates from the (construction management) program."

Goldbach parlayed a project management internship this summer with Milwaukee-based Fiduciary Real Estate Development, Inc., into an offer to join the company as a full-time project engineer after she graduates in December. UW-Platteville's program gave her the edge, she said, providing her with experience across all facets of a construction project, from operating a skid steer to assessing the quality of subcontractors' work. 

"There's so much to do here," she said. "It's not like a lecture where you just sit and take notes. You're really getting into it. We do everything."

Bockenhauer said she wants to keep growing the program even as UW-Platteville faces intense competition for recruits, particularly from technical colleges. A bachelor's degree from UW-Platteville gives students like Goldbach an advantage they can't get at a two-year school, she said. 

"All of us want to have a goal someday to move up within companies," she said. "At UW-Platteville, you get that well-rounded education. You have a leg up when you get into the industry because you have a history of all four years and a network. We're a very broad program that makes really good managers out in the field."

Alex Spottek, a senior construction management major from Greendale, is set to join Milwaukee-based contractor CG Schmidt Construction as a project engineer after he graduates in May. He said he picked UW-Platteville because it checked all the boxes: affordability, hands-on experience and a chance to learn who he was as a person.

"You learn everything, from the estimating process through pre-construction through the actual construction of a building and, obviously, close-out," Spottek said. "At a tech school you would get that experience, but I personally wanted to get away from home and experience who I am, living on your own, experiencing who you are, meeting new people. You really become more well-rounded."