On the Fast Track
Construction Apprenticeship Programs Put Young Workers Ahead of the Game
By Lauren Pinch
The average college graduate enters the real world with no job, not much relevant work experience and a pile of debt. For high school graduates who don’t pursue a degree, the options in today’s economy can be even more limited. The construction industry offers an alternative.
A plethora of apprenticeship programs, two-year degrees and specialized, on-the-job training tracks are a gold mine for young people with an inclination toward technology, engineering, craftsmanship and teamwork.
As the economy edges toward recovery, construction employers and their education partners are ramping up efforts to appeal to the next generation with new training incentives—from general industry education to niche certification programs—to prepare for an exodus of skilled labor as baby boomers retire within the next 10 years.
Educators and construction workforce advocates are focused on creating a start-to-finish career track for young people seeking high-paying jobs with room for advancement, from entry level all the way into upper management.
Associated Builders and Contractors’ (ABC) Indiana Chapter offers just that through a partnership with Vincennes University (VU). Upon entering its four-year apprenticeship program, a student completes 8,000 hours of on-the-job training, combined with 156 college credit hours for lab learning in a chosen construction trade.
“All of our apprentices graduate with a four-year master craftsman degree from ABC, plus a two-year applied science degree,” says J.R. Gaylor, president of the ABC Indiana Chapter.
“Essentially, a student is getting a Vincennes University degree for free; they leave the program with all of these credentials, a job and very little debt,” Gaylor says. “It’s pretty rare to leave a four-year college with a job lined up, and no debt.”
In addition, students take general education courses at VU in economics, communication, English composition, earth science, and health and wellness. “We try to make the academic experience relevant to their job; for example, there will be assignments about writing job reports and communicating with supervisors,” Gaylor says.
Because employers often provide tuition reimbursement to young employees just starting out in the trades, the situation becomes a win-win. The employer gains a more highly skilled workforce, and the apprentice gains a career for life.
The model demonstrates measurable success in providing a seamless career path. Now, the challenge is getting students to start the education track sooner—shortly after high school or college graduation. Often, Gaylor says, an individual will find himself underemployed in other industries before finding his way into the ABC/VU program in his mid to late 20s.
“The upside is that the older students tend to be more committed and focused on their training. The challenge is we need to try to get people sooner, before they knock around for a few years deciding what they want to do,” Gaylor says.
Gaylor is proud of the apprenticeship program’s growth in the state. In 2004, ABC’s Indiana Chapter married its apprenticeship program with VU’s as a way to demonstrate to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development that training grants were being applied to an upwardly mobile process for the individuals being trained. In 2006, ABC won a victory in the Indiana legislature, with a law passed that guarantees training dollars will be available to the university year after year.
Last year, ABC received $1.5 million from the department, allowing it to continue training nearly 700 apprentices enrolled at seven regional education sites. The apprenticeships in electrical, carpentry, HVAC, lineman, pipefitting, plumbing and sheet metal all are approved by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Apprenticeship Training.
Funding is essential to the life of the program. “If we didn’t have that grant money, our tuition would have to be higher, and we wouldn’t have the flexibility to offer the resources that we have. It is crucial for our ability to continue to improve the program,” Gaylor says.
Of the $1.5 million awarded to VU, $1 million is applied to apprenticeship training, $250,000 is applied to a journeyman upgrade program, and $250,000 is applied to a minority recruitment program.
ABC’s Indiana Chapter partners with 105 companies that administer on-the-job training opportunities for apprentices. Some of the larger companies include DEEM, LLC, Indianapolis; Dilling Group, Inc., Logansport, Ind.; Gaylor, Inc., Noblesville, Ind.; L-A Electric, Fort Wayne, Ind.; SSI Services, LLC, Indianapolis; and Votaw Electric, Inc., Fort Wayne, Ind.
The benefit for the firms that sponsor apprentices is loyalty. “It allows a company to grow an individual from their high school graduation into whatever role they want to have in the company,” Gaylor says. “It allows the individual and the company to have an entire life cycle of growth into a career.”
And, the benefit for the industry is a higher level of professionalism. “The individuals in the companies are more educated, better trained and safer. All of that adds to improving the image of construction,” Gaylor says.
Making Students Job Ready
ABC’s Western Michigan Chapter has a similar relationship withGrand Rapids Community College (GRCC), offering electrical, plumbing and mechanical apprenticeships that combine field and classroom training.
Recently, the ABC chapter and leaders at the community college decided more could be done to encourage and develop individuals who aren’t ready to commit to a traditional four-year program, but are seeking flexible training options in other construction trades, such as carpentry and masonry.
Last year, John Doherty, president of the ABC Western Michigan Chapter, met with local industry stakeholders, including Brian Van Haren, president of Van Haren Electric, Inc., Bryon Center, Mich. They conceptualized a new, flexible training model offered through GRCC that would give students some foundational skills to take to prospective construction employers.
The new ABC pre-apprenticeship program, still in the developmental stages, would be incorporated into GRCC’s 18-week basic construction curriculum, which offers three tracks focused on residential, commercial or green building and requires 612 hours of lab work.
In the new program, students could enroll with or without a job. They wouldn’t need to be sponsored by ABC or an employer, but could use this opportunity to position themselves as job-ready. A student would learn to take on more responsibility before choosing to pursue a higher education, or before committing to a full-fledged apprenticeship program.
“We asked, ‘Is keeping a student in one place with the same employer for four years a practical model? Or is that outdated?’” Doherty says. “Students might not want to be locked into school for that whole time, or they might want an online learning component.”
A more flexible learning model would allow an individual to choose when it’s best to attend classes. For some, evening classes are ideal, but for others, attending classes at night after a full day of work is not practical.
Doherty, Van Haren and GRCC are currently seeking more industry input. “We’re in the process of trying to reengage our commercial contractors, who can help the program make the candidates better suited to what they need as employers,” Van Haren says. “We hope to improve, change and expand the offerings that the community college already has.”
In addition, a financial incentive is imperative to attracting the younger generation. “My hope is that employers will step up and provide some scholarship money and internship opportunities,” he says. 
The rewards are two-fold. “For students, it gives them a jump-start into the industry, and hopefully connects them with jobs. It gets them the foundational skills to be immediately transferrable to a job,” Van Haren says.
“For an employer, it provides some of the initial orientation and training that a good construction employee should have, such as safety knowledge or the use of hand tools,” he says. “It gives an employer a sense that the student has more than just an effective interview under his belt. And with the feedback from the college about how the student did in class, you increase the odds that you are finding someone with the right skills to become a construction worker.”
New Training for TAB Technicians
ABC’s Pacific Northwest Chapter, Beaverton, Ore., recently introduced a new training initiative catered to a niche sector of the industry: testing, adjusting and air balancing (TAB) technicians.
An important distinction must be made: TAB technicians are not the same as HVAC craftworkers or sheet metal installers. Rather, TAB technicians are the third-party testers that measure the air flow of a newly constructed system to ensure it complies with quality control requirements.
“There needs to be a go-between to see objectively if these systems work properly,” says Joe Helm, president of Northwest Engineering Services, Inc., Tigard, Ore. The company recently performed air balancing tests for the Port of Portland’s new corporate offices, as well as the University of Oregon’s Matthew Knight arena.
ABC and a handful of local companies that perform third-party TAB work realized the need for a separate apprenticeship program when union sheet metal workers began advocating for TAB technicians to be paid under the same prevailing wage scale as sheet metal installation craftworkers. In the state, a craftworker on a public project must be paid the prevailing wage; if not, the worker must be a member of an approved apprenticeship program.
In 2007, following a lawsuit, ABC successfully convinced the Wage and Hour Division at Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries that TAB technicians must be categorized independently from HVAC installers when determining wages on public projects.
“This niche of construction has been around for 50 years,” says John Killin, president of the ABC Pacific Northwest Chapter. “This was simply a political push by labor to change the definition of TAB to make it a part of the installation trade.”
In 2009, the ABC chapter partnered with Portland Community College (PCC) to launch its apprenticeship program, which is approved by the Oregon State Apprenticeship and Training Council.
The TAB training curriculum was developed from existing third-party certification models offered by the National Environmental Balancing Bureau and the Associated Air Balance Council. ABC added a hands-on mechanical training component—6,000 hours of on-the-job training in addition to the 490 related training hours required to take the certification test.
TAB training is becoming increasingly relevant as more public projects require third-party testing of air systems. Projects seeking green certification often require independent verification of energy savings as well.
In addition, a specialist must keep up with current technology and engineering standards. “A driving force is that today’s HVAC systems are becoming much more complicated, and therefore the need for an advanced training program has grown,” says Cindy Regier, apprenticeship director for ABC’s Pacific Northwest Chapter.
The program, she says, is a great match for a student who has a mechanical aptitude and a desire to test and troubleshoot equipment, or an individual with an inclination toward engineering. “It’s a way to a career path, with the first step being to gain certification through one of the air balancing associations before becoming a technician,” she says. “This is complex work, and you have to be pretty sharp to do it.”
Helm agrees that despite the current economy, niche apprenticeship programs are a boon for the industry. “It’s been a good way for our company to put people on a professional growth path,” he says. “It also helps us recognize people who have been working for us a long time through merit raises and performance evaluations tied to training.”
The apprenticeship program is the first of its kind in the nation. Only about 1,000 companies specialize in TAB testing in the United States, and only 12 companies in Oregon perform the work. Although just seven apprentices currently are enrolled, Killin and Regier say the program has strong growth potential, as more and more projects nationwide will require third-party energy testing.
“I think our training has an opportunity to gain some momentum when the industry comes back,” Helm says. “Making it a little more uniform and more formal is an important step going forward.”
No comments:
Post a Comment