National Skills Summit

National Skills Summit
Innovative Initiatives: Construction and Transportation

Laborers-AGC Education and Training Fund, Northwest Laborers-Employers Training Trust Fund and Forest Service Job Corps Center: Training for Life

The Challenge:

To introduce disadvantaged young adults to a career in construction.

The Solution:

Train Job Corps students in construction craft laborer skills.

The Partners:

Laborers-AGC Education and Training Fund is a partnership between the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) and The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). Since 1969, this partnership has developed training programs enhancing the skills of construction craft laborers throughout a North American training network.

Northwest Laborers-Employers Training Trust Fund (the Fund) coordinates local apprenticeship from their offices in Corvallis, Oregon, and Kingston, Washington, among other activities.

U.S. Department of Labor-Forest Service Curlew Job Corps Center (Curlew) is a Civilian Conservation Corps center located in northeast Washington state, and is operated by the U.S. Forest Service through an interagency agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor. Job Corps is the nation's largest residential education and job training program for at-risk youth ages 16 through 24. Job Corps students are drawn exclusively from economically disadvantaged households.

The Story:

Their day begins with a 6 a.m. dorm inspection. After a quick breakfast, they arrive at the fitness center for calisthenics and a three-mile run with stops each half-mile for 50 push-ups and 50 sit-ups. Strength training with weights follows. Who are these young men and women? They are participants in a one-of-kind construction craft laborer apprenticeship program that grew out of a unique partnership between the U.S. Department of Labor Forest Service Curlew Job Corps Center and the Northwest Laborers-Employers Training Trust Fund.

The rest of the day is spent learning construction skills such as pipe-laying, core drilling, and scaffold erection. Participants are also trained in the use of power-actuated tools, grinders, 90-pound breakers, laser measuring instruments, picks and shovels, earth compactors, all-purpose saws, and skid steer loaders. During their stay at the training center, trainees apply their newly acquired skills in various maintenance projects. Anyone who has not yet earned a high school diploma attends school at the training site every other week until he or she graduates. Driver's education is also available.

Students complete a minimum of nine months of the program and can stay in the program up to two years. Darold Staley, director of the construction craft laborer program, determines when students are ready for apprenticeships, but students must be 18 years old to be indentured. Seven years into the Job Corps-Laborers' partnership, more than 50 of about 100 participants have gone to work as construction craft laborer apprentices in Oregon and Washington.

The results are impressive. Apprentices are completing their apprenticeship with LIUNA (the retention rate is 70 percent) and are fast becoming leaders on the job sites of signatory contractors. Because of their enhanced work ethic and skills training, many Job Corps graduates begin as third term apprentices and some have reached journey worker status after a relatively short period in the field. The average beginning wage in the Seattle area is $18.34/hour. One former student is making $60,000 as a site foreman at the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant.

This unique partnership is rewarding for everyone involved. The training fund gets top-notch apprentice candidates and the Job Corps benefits from a stable source of jobs for program graduates. The program is such a success that Job Corps centers located at other Forest Service sites are planning to establish similar partnerships.

A Model of Innovation:

This practice takes advantage of Job Corps, an existing, well-established youth training program, and focuses on skills that are needed in that region. It uses an existing union apprenticeship program to ensure that students have work opportunities that pay well, provide benefits, and have the potential for career advancement.

Contacts:

Bill Duke,
Director of Apprenticeship Laborers-AGC Education and Training Fund
37 Deerfield Road
Pomfret Center, CT 06259
860-974-0800 (p)
860-974-1459 (f)
bduke@laborers-agc.org

Michael Warren, Director
Northwest Laborers-Employers Training Trust Fund
27055 Ohio Avenue
Kingston, WA 98346
360-297-3035 (p)
360-297-7366 (f)
mwarren@nwlaborerstraining.org

Darold Staley
Curlew Job Corps Center
3 Campus St.
Curlew, WA 99118
509-779-7675 (p)
509-779-7680 (f)

Tom Murty
Curlew Job Corps Center
3 Campus St.
Curlew, WA 99118
509-779-4611 (p)
509-779-7680 (f)

Highlight Quote:

"The apprentices we have hired who come out of the Job Corps have a lot of skills, have great attitudes, and are very professional," said a superintendent for North America Energy Services who has employed several of these apprentices.