NGA is the authority and resource for its members and the industry to grow successful businesses and to champion the benefits of glazing and glass building products. We serve and represent the entire glass, glazing and glass building products supply chain— from primary glass manufacturers to glass fabricators to commercial and residential glass installing companies.
Elevate the image of glass as a safe, healthy, sustainable and inspiring building product.
Advance the industry as a viable, thriving and exciting career path.
NGA’s resources for education and training take several forms to meet the needs of its members and stakeholders when and where they’re at—whether that’s at a jobsite, on the plant floor or in an office. MyGlassClass.com, technical papers and manuals, business publications, a host of webinars, conferences and events held throughout the year, along with education for design professionals, are ways NGA helps keep its members and the industry at the top of their game.
MyGlassClass.com offers more than 120 courses designed to complement—and shorten—hands-on training time for new installers.
courses
MyGlassClass.com courses
New students in 2023
MyGlassFAB offers core training for production personnel that they can access on their smartphone to learn about job responsibilities, safety, products, and fabrication techniques. Designed specifically for glass fabrication employees, MyGlassFAB combines online courses with skills-based activities on safety, measurement techniques, and glass quality and defect inspection.
NGA remains committed to providing the latest information through design guides, Glass Technical Papers (GTPs), business manuals and papers written and developed by industry experts for those in the glazing and glass industry. In 2023, NGA introduced one new manual, two new GTPs, and 13 updated GTPs.
Design guides
Downloads
GTPs
NGA is an approved AIA Provider of CES credits. Thanks to the involvement of our volunteer members, NGA has several approved presentations for live (in-person or online) delivery as part of its resource library.
Held in conjunction with AIA ’23 – San Francisco, the NGA Blueprint for Collaboration: A Path Toward Sustainable Facades, facilitated networking while offering education.
For the fifth year, NGA hosted its Glass & Glazing Design Academy with Architectural Record.
These 30-minute sessions are held the third Thursday of most months and cover a wide range of industry trends and technical issues.
NGA launched its new vlog and podcast series, Glass Cast and Window Cast, in summer 2023. This series explores need-to-know businesstopics, including solutions to help owners build profits, and insights onmarket trends and challenges. The initial launch included five episodes.
GlassBuild America celebrated its 20th anniversary this year with its largest show in more than a decade. Nearly 200 industry leaders gathered for the 17th annual Glazing Executives Forum in conjunction with GlassBuild America in Atlanta. New in 2023 was “Solutions on Display” – a guided round-robin tour of select booths on the tradeshow floor.
GlassBuild America exhibitors
participants
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Industry technical leaders focused on advocacy for architectural glass as a sustainable material, and the ways it enhances occupant experience in buildings. Sessions addressed building security, daylighting, IGU technology and architectural glass recycling.
The 2023 BEC Conference marked 25 years of this event serving the contract glazing members and companies industry-wide.
Elevate the image of glass as a safe, healthy, sustainable and inspiring building product. NGA maintains several avenues of engagement with our members, stakeholders and the industry. These include magazines, newsletters, websites, networking events, strategic alliances and social media.
Glass Magazine delivers need-to-know technical, educational and market trend information to help companies across the commercial architectural glass industry build and grow their businesses.
Key Reports:
Print pages
News items on GlassMagazine.com
Print Issues
Covering the entire residential fenestration industry from source to sale, Window + Door is dedicated to providing the entire fenestration industry with unbiased, relevant content that helps companies build more profitable businesses.
Key Reports:
Print pages
News items on WindowandDoor.com
Print Issues
The NGA member community is 1,800 companies strong. We are contract glaziers. We are full-service glass and specialty, and residential window and door companies. We are fabricators, manufacturers and suppliers. NGA provides a gathering place for you to learn, share, engage and make connections to help you and your business grow.
On LinkedIn, NGA highlighted the first-hand experiences of a group of women leading member and industry companies in the glass and fenestration fields.
Each edition includes the NGA Member Spotlight, proudly highlighting our members to introduce them to fellow members and the industry.
NGA's new member engagement plan maintains regular engagement with newly joined member companies during their first 18 months of membership.
New in the fall of 2023 was the launch of a special Project Manager Spotlight Series, which identifies specific individuals in project management roles in both glazing and fabricating companies in a casual interview format.
NGA seeks to be a strong advocate to promote and defend the glass industry. NGA’s advocacy and technical initiatives respond to the relentless, ever-changing challenges to our industry. NGA is the glass and glazing authority. From the U.S. government to industry code bodies, organizations look to NGA to be the definitive reference when it comes to the architectural glass industry.
Danny Donahue, NGA’s 2023 Volunteer of the Year. This award goes to an NGA member that has made significant contributions to the association or profession in the past year.
Urmilla Sowell presents Timothy Moore with the Gregory Carney Legacy Award, which goes to an individual involved in and advocating for the industry.
States represented at Glass and Glazing Advocacy Days
The United States General Services Administration announced that Vitro Architectural Glass, an NGA member company, was awarded a project for American-made sustainable glass for the Virginia courthouse.This project is part of GSA’s six-month pilot program applying interim Inflation Reduction Act Low Embodied Carbon Material Requirements for 11 GSA construction projects, three including glass.
NGA provided input and responded to requests for information on several legislative proposals at the federal and state levels.
NGA hosted the second annual Glass & Glazing Advocacy Days March 27-28 in Washington, D.C., to advocate and educate about glass in the built environment. NGA staff and members met with legislative representation from several states, and with representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy to discuss five policy priorities and the vital role glass plays in the built environment.
NGA members and staff meeting with Rep. Tom Tiffany in Washington, D.C.
Introducing NGA’s newest goal: To advance the industry as a viable, thriving and exciting career path. Labor—specifically a lack of skilled labor—continues to challenge installing companies and glass fabricators, with both Top Glaziers and Top Fabricators citing it as their biggest obstacle in 2023, following inflation and the economic slowdown. NGA’s workforce development efforts fall into three areas: raising awareness, recruitment, and training and apprenticeship.
Once aware of the trade, the goal is to convert interested people into employees, and NGA is exploring ways to help connect potential employees with industry companies. In 2023, NGA participated alongside member companies at the Associated Builders and Contractors Inland Pacific Chapter Construction Trades Night and Technical Glass Products’ (TGP) Manufacturing Day events to help recruit high school students interested in a career in glazing or glass fabrication.
While the glass industry is not alone in the labor shortage—the construction workforce shortage tops half a million in 2023—it does face the additional challenge of educating the public about the glass and glazing trade. Raising awareness of the glass and glazing industry, particularly among high school students and second-chance career candidates, remains key to eventually easing the labor shortage. This year, NGA launched the “Become a Glazier” webpage to educate the public about the glazing trade and the opportunities it offers.
This year, FHC | Frameless Hardware Company committed to continue and increase its generous support of NGA’s workforce development efforts. FHC remains the largest contributor to the NGA Foundation and has covered the curriculum costs for more than 273 glazier apprentices throughout the country, in addition to funding the development of new training and recruitment initiatives. “Our business and this industry only work if we have glaziers in the game to keep glass in buildings,” says Chris Hanstad, president, FHC. “They are our livelihood and we’ll spare no efforts in equipping them to grow. We grow when they grow, and NGA’s MyGlassClass.com education platform is the most impactful solution for us to get behind, support and realize that goal.”
Ensuring member companies and the industry have access to training resources remains a top priority for NGA, and it continues to invest in the MyGlassClass.com and MyGlassFAB platforms. The association also offers the NGA Glazier Apprentice Curriculum for organizations and companies that want to establish a glazier apprenticeship program approved by the U.S. Department of Labor. Students who complete the NGA Glazier Apprentice Curriculum will earn a jointly endorsed NGA/NCCER credential indicating a journeyman-level minimum competency reached through knowledge and performance.
The NGA’s Glazier Apprentice Curriculum is currently in use by 29 Registered Glazier Apprenticeship Programs nationwide, including nine new programs in 2023.
Red areas indicate statewide registered apprentice programs using the NGA Glazier Apprentice Curriculum.
Hatched areas indicate individual company RAPs using the NGA Glazier Apprentice Curriculum.