Founding Cohort 2026 · BCL School
Four weeks.
Twelve boxes.
One certificate that means something.
BCL School's flagship cohort. By the end of week four, AI is a daily-driver tool on your truck, in your office, and standing between you and the scams coming for your shop. The certificate goes on the wall — earned by what you did, not by what you watched.
Starts TBD. TBD. Free seat per cohort for low-income tradespeople — flag it on the form below.
Who this is for
The apprentice who's tired of being slow.
You're three years in. You can pull a service. You can rough a kitchen. But the office stuff — estimates, customer emails, code lookups — eats your evening. AI fixes that. We'll teach you how to actually use it, on the same phone you already carry.
And the owner who's tired of being scammed
The shop that almost wired $40K.
The same AI that helps you bid faster is helping the bad guys clone your voice and spoof your vendors. By week three you'll have run a drill in your own shop and written the BCL callback rule on a sticky note. The cohort makes you faster and harder to hit.
The cert
Twelve boxes. That's the whole syllabus.
The AI-Ready Tradesman certificate hangs in your shop with twelve competency lines printed across the bottom — three for each week. Clear all twelve, the cert ships with your name on it. Lurk and watch the recordings, and you'll get a lot out of the cohort, but you won't get the cert. That's intentional. The cert means can do, not saw the videos.
Schedule
The four weeks, plain.
One live group call per week (recorded). Async work in between. Skool community for between-call Q&A. Cohort capped at 25.
Week 1
3 boxes to clear
AI on the truck
AI is a tool you can swing, same as a meter. We'll teach you when it's good, when it's bullshitting you, and how to swing it on the jobs you're already on this week. By Friday you'll have used it on three real jobs and saved at least 30 minutes on one of them.
- 3 prompts you wrote yourself, used in the field, posted to the cohort thread.
- 1 job logged where AI saved you ≥ 30 minutes.
- Attended (or watched) the Week 1 live call.
Week 2
3 boxes to clear
AI in the back office
Estimates, invoices, follow-ups, scheduling, scope-clarification emails. The hour you save here goes back to your family. We'll show you what to paste, what to redact, and how to keep customer info out of public chatbots.
- 1 estimate or invoice produced with AI assistance.
- 1 customer-facing communication drafted with AI assistance.
- Attended (or watched) the Week 2 live call.
Week 3
3 boxes to clear
Defending against AI-powered scams
The same tools you're learning to use, the bad guys are using to come after your shop. Voice clones, vendor-spoof BEC, fake invoices. The defense is process, not paranoia. By the end of the week you've run a drill at your own shop and written the BCL callback rule on a sticky note where it'll actually be read.
- Passed the vendor-callback drill (owner-spoof urgent wire scenario).
- Wrote the BCL callback rule on a sticky note + photo of where it lives.
- Attended (or watched) the Week 3 live call.
Week 4
3 boxes to clear
Building an AI-augmented week
The cohort ends, the habit stays. We're not making you a "prompt engineer." We're making sure that 30 days from now your week looks different than it did before you signed up. You'll plan your first AI-augmented Monday end-to-end and pick the one habit you're keeping.
- Written reflection on the four weeks (one page minimum).
- One specific weekly habit you're keeping after the cohort ends.
- Attended (or watched) the Week 4 live call.
What's included
Everything you need. Nothing you don't.
Live calls + recordings
Four 60-min live group calls with Paul. All recorded so you can catch up after a long day on the truck.
Skool community
Private cohort thread. Post your prompts, your wins, your stuck-points. Founders read every one.
BCL tools, free
All BCL command-line tools (material-list generator, voice dictation, drill kit) shipped with the cohort. Yours forever.
AI-Ready Tradesman cert
A real, verifiable credential. Your name in serif, your shop on the wall. Reissue-safe forever.
Founding-cohort pricing
First cohort. Cheapest it'll ever be. Locked in for any future BCL School modules you want to take.
A free seat for someone who needs it
Each cohort sets aside one fully-funded seat for a low-income tradesperson. No proof required at signup.
FAQ
Questions we get a lot.
Do I need a computer?
No. The whole cohort runs on your phone — Claude.ai (or ChatGPT, or Gemini), your camera roll, voice input. You don't need to buy anything. Pre-cohort week walks you through getting set up.
What if I miss a live call?
Every call is recorded. Watching the recording counts the same as attending live for cert purposes. Live is more fun (you can ask questions on screen), but no one gets penalized for working a job.
What if I'm not technical?
The cohort is built for working tradesmen, not engineers. Plainspoken, no jargon. We treat you like you have 15 years on the truck and 0 with AI. The first prompt we walk through, we walk through together.
Will my boss pay for it?
Some will, some won't. We've seen both. Pay yourself if you have to — you walk out the one who knows it. Worth more than most weekend continuing-ed credits.
Isn't this the same as the free Microsoft + NABTU AI courses?
Take both. They're not the same thing and you don't have to pick.
Microsoft + NABTU's free LinkedIn Learning courses give you AI literacy and an industry-recognized credential. They're well-built, free, and we recommend them. They're aimed at NABTU's three million unionized building tradespeople — mostly large commercial and industrial work, delivered through the union training-center system.
BCL is built for the part of the trades that isn't union — the residential service shops, the 1-truck owner, the small commercial outfit, the apprentice whose JATC isn't running an AI module yet. We go deeper on cybersecurity and fraud defense (which the MS+NABTU curriculum doesn't cover). We're cohort-based with founder office hours, not a solo self-paced course. And by week four you've shipped five working AI workflows — not just earned a credential.
If you've already taken the MS+NABTU courses, that's great preparation. The cohort picks up where they leave off.
Is the cert accredited?
No. It's not state-issued and we don't pretend it is. It's a credible signal to other tradesmen and shop owners that you've done the work. That's worth what it's worth — saying it loudly is what would kill its value.
What if I drop out?
Life happens. The recordings are yours either way. If you finish later in the next cohort's run, we'll issue the cert then. The credential ID is reissue-safe.
What's the refund policy?
Full refund within the first week of the cohort, no questions asked. After that we've already invested instructor time in you.
Reserve your seat
Founding Cohort 2026.
No payment yet — just first dibs when enrollment opens. We'll email you the founding pricing, the start date, and a one-question screener to make sure the cohort is a fit.
- • 25 seats. First-come, first-served.
- • Founding price locked in for any future BCL module.
- • Free seat for low-income tradespeople — flag it on the form.
- • Starts TBD. TBD.