With the rain still coming down on the Sunday of what was becoming the flood of 2016, Kerry Duet with the Design Center of Acadiana got a phone call from one of her builders.
The rising waters meant two things: a wave of home repairs imminent and there might not be enough qualified workers to do the jobs. So the caller quickly got to the point: Well, Kerry, what are you going to do about this?
She called a meeting that next morning, and what happened after that call set the wheels in motion for the Master Guild of Acadiana, a program Duet and others started as a way to train workers for the home construction industry. The guild is a co-op that merges the efforts of employers, educators and professional organizations to meet industry needs in the Lafayette region and in south Louisiana…